Mr Karim Sinjari was appointed as Minister for the Interior May 2006, and reappointed in the six cabinet on 28 October 2009 following the July 2009 Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections.

Mr Sinjari has served as Interior Minister in the Kurdistan Region since 2001. Born in Sinjar in 1950, he graduated with a degree in law from Baghdad University in 1971. He practised as a lawyer in Baghdad from 1973 and joined the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). He then joined the Peshmerga forces and was appointed to the KDP’s provisional leadership (1976-1980).

Mr Sinjari was exiled in Sweden for eight years (1980-1988) and then returned to Kurdistan as head of the KDP’s security service. After the first Kurdistan general elections of 1992, he was appointed Director General of the Kurdistan Region’s security service (1993). In 2001 he was appointed Interior Minister in the KRG's Erbil and Dohuk administration, and elected to the central committee of the KDP. He was later appointed to the party's Politburo.

Mr Sinjari speaks Swedish, English, Arabic and Persian. He is married with three children.