Ali Bourequat is a successful Moroccan/

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

n businessman who was secretly arrested and incarcerated for years by the Moroccan government in the infamous secret prison

Tazmamart Tazmamart ( ar, سجن تازمامرت) was a secret prison in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, holding political prisoners. The prison became a symbol of oppression in the political history of contemporary Morocco. It is located near the city of ...

.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 The Alawi dynasty ( ar, سلالة العلويين الفيلاليين, translit=sulālat al-ʿalawiyyīn al-fīlāliyyīn) – also rendered in English as Alaouite, Alawid, or Alawite – is the current Moroccan royal family and reigning d ...

princess who worked in the royal court. He wrote a book on his ordeal.

Personal life

Bourequat is the son of an

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 Scottis ...

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 such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...

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 Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

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 it has more than ten million members and sup ...

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 Asylum may refer to: Types of asylum * Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome * Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute * Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea ...

as the only American

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

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