Kadhimi, Mustafa al-

Kadhimi, Mustafa al-, 1967–, Iraqi journalist, human-rights activist, government official, and political leader, b. as Mustafa Abdul-Latif Mishatat. A Shia Muslim, he opposed President Saddam Hussein and left Iraq in 1985, living in Iran and Europe. He was an Iraq editor for a news website and director of the Humanitarian Dialogue Foundation in London. Upon his return in 2003, he helped establish the Iraqi Media Network and was the director of the Iraq Memory Foundation, which documented crimes committed by Hussein's regime. From 2016 to 2020, he headed Iraq's National Intelligence Service. In 2020 he succeeded Adel Abdul-Mahdi as prime minister. A political independent and the third person named to succeed Abdul-Mahdi, he is considered a pragmatist and has mediated among various political factions.

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