- Ali Bourequat
Ali Bourequat was a French citizen of Moroccan origins living in
Rabat ,Morocco . He is a writer and former forciblydisappeared . A successful businessman, he came from a rich family of Turkish origin close to the court of kingHassan II .In 1973 he was, with his two brothers Midhat and Bayazid, abducted by the Moroccan secret police,
torture d and jailed without trial for reasons he claims unknown even to himself. He was originally incarcerated in facilities close to Rabat, but in 1981 he was transferred to the Tazmamart prison, a secret detention facility with a 50% death rate. [http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/308/6936/1111] [http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/28999DD1-D493-4608-B08A-58FA583277FF.htm] His family was given no information on his whereabouts, consistent with the practice of the Moroccan regime in cases of "forced disappearance", and he was never charged with a crime. [http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/morocco_and_western_sahara/document.do?id=D560250A050C4099802569A6006018CF]In 1991 he was released after pressure from
human rights organizationAmnesty International and the American government, along with other surviving Tazmamart prisoners, including his brothers, on the condition that he leave forFrance never to return.The French government had consistently cooperated with Morocco in denying his imprisonment, and Bourequat was scalding in his critique of
Paris 's collaboration with the Moroccan regime. While writing about his experiences and about the close ties between the Moroccan government and the French government, Bourequat claims he was threatened and harassed by both Moroccan and French secret police. He fled to the United States, where he was in 1995 granted asylum as the only Americanrefugee from France.He presently lives in
Texas , USA, where he remains a vocal critic of the Moroccan regime.Publication
* Ali Bourequat (1998), "In the Moroccan King's Secret Gardens", Maurice Publishers
See also
*
Years of lead
*Malika Oufkir
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