Mohamed Basri () widely known as Fqih Basri (; 1927 in

Demnate Demnate ( ar, دمنات; zgh, Demnat, ⴷⴻⵎⵏⴰⵜ) is a town in central Morocco, located at the foot of the high Atlas Mountains roughly 110 km east of Marrakech. The majority of the population speaks Berber; the local dialect is Tas ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

October 14, 2003 in

Chefchaouen Chefchaouen ( ar, شفشاون, Shafshāwan, ), also known as Chaouen (), is a city in northwest Morocco. It is the chief town of the province of the same name and is noted for its buildings in shades of blue, for which it is nicknamed the "Blu ...

, Morocco) was a lifelong political activist and Moroccan regime opponent. Mohamed Basri was nicknamed 'Fqih Basri', since he had begun his studies at a Quranic school before entering, in 1944, Marrakech's Ben Yousef University, where he first joined the armed struggle against the French colonizers of Morocco. In 1954, he was arrested by the authorities of the French Protectorate and imprisoned at

Kenitra Kenitra ( ar, القُنَيْطَرَة, , , ; ber, ⵇⵏⵉⵟⵔⴰ, Qniṭra; french: Kénitra) is a city in north western Morocco, formerly known as Port Lyautey from 1932 to 1956. It is a port on the Sebou river, has a population in 201 ...

; the next year, he succeeded in escaping from the prison along with 37 other insurgents. After independence, while commanding the National Liberation Army of the South, he helped found the UNFP, a socialist party that split from the Istiqlal party in 1959, and headed its daily newspaper, Al-Tahrir. He was arrested and tortured for supposedly taking part in the so-called 'July 1960 Plot' against the monarchy, and again in 1963. In 1966, he chose voluntary exile, not returning to Morocco until June, 1995. After his exile he was repeatedly implicated by the regime in various real and imagined plots against the monarchy, and repeatedly sentenced to death in absentia.Perrault, Gilles, Notre Ami Le Roi, Gallimard, 1990 Victim of a heart attack, Basri died in Chefchaouen on October 14, 2003, soon after a Paris surgical operation. He was buried on 15 October.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Basri, Fqih 1927 births 2003 deaths Moroccan activists Moroccan exiles Moroccan dissidents Moroccan socialists National Union of Popular Forces politicians People from Demnate Members of the Moroccan Army of Liberation Moroccan revolutionaries Moroccan prisoners sentenced to death Moroccan escapees People sentenced to death in absentia Moroccan democracy activists Moroccan expatriates in Algeria Republicanism in Morocco