Khairullah Khairkhwa
Khairullah Said Wali Khairkhwa (Pashto: خیرالله سید ولي خیرخواه [xairʊˈlɑ saˈjɪd waˈli xairˈxwɑ]; born 1967) is the Afghan Minister of Information and Culture and a former Minister of the Interior. After the fall of the Taliban government in 2001, he was held at the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camp in Cuba for 12 years. He was released in late May 2014 in a prisoner exchange that involved Bowe Bergdahl and the Taliban five. Press reports have referred to him as "Mullah" and "Maulavi", two different honorifics for referring to senior Muslim clerics.
Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa | |
|---|---|
Khairkhwa in 2020 | |
| Minister of Information and Culture | |
Acting | |
| Assumed office 7 September 2021 | |
| Supreme Leader | Hibatullah Akhundzada |
| Prime Minister | Hasan Akhund (acting) |
| Minister of Interior Affairs | |
| In office c. 1997–c. 1998 | |
| Prime Minister | Mohammad Rabbani |
| Leader | Mohammed Omar |
| Preceded by | Qari Ahmadullah |
| Succeeded by | Abdur Razzaq Akhundzada |
| Governor of Herat | |
| In office March 2001 – October 2001 | |
| Prime Minister | Mohammad Rabbani |
| Leader | Mohammed Omar |
| Spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan | |
| In office c. 1995–c. 1996 | |
| Prime Minister | Mohammad Rabbani Abdul Kabir |
| Leader | Mohammed Omar |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1967 (age 56–57) Kandahar, Afghanistan |
| Political party | Taliban |
Claims from analysts at Guantanamo that Khairkhwa was directly associated with Osama bin Laden and Taliban Supreme Commander Mullah Muhammad Omar have been widely repeated. Kate Clark has criticized her fellow journalists for uncritically repeating U.S. claims that were largely based on unsubstantiated rumor and innuendo, or on confessions and denunciations coerced through torture and other extreme interrogation techniques.