Ali Bourequat is a Moroccan/

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

n businessman who was secretly arrested and incarcerated for years by the Moroccan government in the infamous secret prison Tazmamart.Alain Brossat, Jean-Louis Déotte, ''La mort dissoute: disparition et spectralité'', Harmattan, 2002 , p. 82 He is a French citizen now living in the United States. He is the son of an Alaouite princess who worked in the royal court. He wrote a book on his ordeal.

Personal life

Bourequat is the son of an Alaouite princess and a Turkish-Tunisian businessman who was also a security chief and helped found Morocco's police and Intelligence service. His father was also a close friend of Mohammed V and so Ali and his brothers grew up in the inner circle of the court of King

Hassan II Hassan, Hasan, Hassane, Haasana, Hassaan, Asan, Hassun, Hasun, Hassen, Hasson or Hasani may refer to: People *Hassan (given name), Arabic given name and a list of people with that given name *Hassan (surname), Arabic, Jewish, Irish, and Scotti ...

Imprisonment

In 1973 he was, with his two brothers Midhat and Bayazid, abducted by the Moroccan secret police,

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

d and jailed without trial for reasons he claims unknown even to himself. He was originally incarcerated in facilities close to Rabat and in 1973 succeeded in escaping along with the mutineers of the 1971 failed coup but was recaptured several days later. In 1981 he was transferred to the Tazmamart prison, a secret detention facility with a 50% death rate. 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. In 1991 he was released after pressure from

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

organization

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

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 government. While writing about his experiences and about the close ties between the Moroccan government and the French government, Bourequat stated 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 A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

from France. He presently lives in Hendersonville, North Carolina (USA) where he remains a vocal critic of the Moroccan regime.

References

Publications

* Ali Bourequat (1998), ''In the Moroccan King's Secret Gardens'', Maurice Publishers

External links

Bibliomonde
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bourequat, Ali Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Morocco French biographers Human rights abuses in Morocco Living people Moroccan writers Writers from Rabat Year of birth missing (living people) French people of Moroccan descent French people of Turkish descent Moroccan people of Turkish descent Tunisian people of Turkish descent Moroccan escapees Moroccan businesspeople Moroccan people of Tunisian descent Moroccan prisoners and detainees French male non-fiction writers

Personal life

Imprisonment

See also

References

Publications

External links