Ali Bourequat

Ali Bourequat was a French citizen of Moroccan origins living in Rabat, Morocco. He is a writer and former forcibly disappeared. A successful businessman, he came from a rich family of Turkish origin close to the court of king Hassan II.

In 1973 he was, with his two brothers Midhat and Bayazid, abducted by the Moroccan secret police, tortured 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 organization Amnesty International and the American government, along with other surviving Tazmamart prisoners, including his brothers, on the condition that he leave for France 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 American refugee 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