Ben Barka, Mehdi

Born 1920; died October 1965(7). Political figure of Morocco.

A mathematics teacher by profession, Ben Barka was one of the founders of the Istiqlal Party (from December 1943 to January 1944), and subsequently a member of its executive committee. After Morocco’s independence was proclaimed in 1956, he became president of the National Consultative Assembly and editor of the weekly Al-Istiqlal. From 1959 to 1965 he headed the National Union of Popular Forces Party. He emigrated in 1965. Ben Barka was abducted in Paris in October 1965 and killed under mysterious circumstances.