Ahmed al-Boukhari (; 1938 – 16 February 2025) was a Moroccan agent of Cab-1, the political cell of the

DST Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time, daylight time (United States and Canada), or summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks to make better use of the long ...

(the Moroccan internal

secret service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For i ...

). He claimed to have taken part in the operation that orchestrated the abduction and murder of

Mehdi Ben Barka Mehdi Ben Barka (; 1920 – disappeared 29 October 1965) was a Moroccan nationalist, Arab socialist, politician, revolutionary, anti-imperialist, head of the left-wing National Union of Popular Forces (UNFP) and secretary of the Tricontinenta ...

, and was as such one of the last surviving possible witnesses in the Benbarka Affair.

Ben Barka Affair

Although he was not present at the crime scene, he had to process all the information on the operation. He claimed that

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

agents were involved, a certain ''Colonel Martin''. Boukhari claimed in his confessions that Ben Barka's body was transported secretly to

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

and his corpse was dissolved in a bath of acid. However, pro-government newspapers in Morocco claimed that Boukhari was a fraud and a liar. The movie "J'ai vu tuer Ben Barka" ("I saw Ben Barka being killed") was based partly on this book.

Publications

Boukhari authored two books, one about the Ben Barka affair, entitled ''Le Secret'' and the other ''Raisons d'état'' (published in 2005), in which he recounts the operations of the DST from the 1960s to the 1980s during the repression of various dissident movements, mainly from the socialist left. He remains the only insider who has ever published anything about the DST.

Arrest, trial and harassment by authorities

Because of his revelations, Boukhari had many problems with Morocco's justice system, including

defamation Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...

lawsuits by former employees of the DST and the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior, whom he mentioned by name in his book, as well as other common affairs such as

dishonoured cheque A dishonoured cheque (US spelling: dishonored check) is a cheque that the bank on which it is drawn declines to pay ("honour"). There are a number of reasons why a bank might refuse to honour a cheque, with non-sufficient funds (NSF) being the mos ...

s, which were claimed to be used against him in order to sentence him in a non-political affair. The Moroccan authorities refused to issue a passport for Boukhari, which he requested in 2001 in order to be able to testify in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

before the judge investigating the Ben Barka disappearance. After a lawsuit in the administrative court, Boukhari was finally granted a passport in early 2006.

Death

Boukhari died after a long illness at a clinic in

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

, on 16 February 2025, at the age of 86.Casablanca: décès d’Ahmed Boukhari à l’âge de 86 ans

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boukhari, Ahmed 1938 births 2025 deaths Human rights abuses in Morocco People from Safi, Morocco People of Moroccan intelligence agencies Moroccan whistleblowers Moroccan prisoners and detainees