Benbarka case: family says USFP statement contains inaccuracies and omissions
Morocco, Politics, 7/6/2001

The statement made public Thursday by the political bureau of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP, party led by premier Abderrahmane Youssoufi) contains some inaccuracies and omissions, said the family of late Moroccan leftist opposition leader, Mehdi Benbarka.

In a statement sent to MAP office in Paris, the family of Benbarka, who was kidnapped and killed in 1965, deplores that the statement which says that the USFP has been closely following since 1965 the evolution of the case fails to remember 26 years of investigation and is, today, claiming readiness to support the family attorneys in reactivating the judiciary investigation in Paris.

The family said they have borne, often alone, for 36 years the judiciary battle and the struggle against the raisons d'etat, political and extra-judiciary procedures in order to make the investigation move forward and has encouraged and helped all journalism investigation initiatives which asked for their help.

The statement, which concedes that Youssoufi has been, alongside the family and their lawyers, one of the major actors in the judiciary action during the trial of his two kidnappers in 1966 and 1967, says the UNFP (from which the USFP split) has never been a plaintiff. They also recalled that only Mehdi Benbarka's brother, Abdelkader, was a plaintiff in 1965, a task that was taken over by Benbarka's son, Bachir, ten years later.

Benbarka's family also recalls that several years ago, new information elements have appeared in the case and could have been useful in the search of freedom in Morocco but the Moroccan authorities failed to take any initiative even when the plaintiffs, Benbarka's family and their attorneys, made the request. It was not before 1999, when the family decided to return to Morocco, that Moroccan judiciary authorities accepted to receive an international letters rogatory, launched by French judge Parlos.

The Benbarkas statement came in response to the USFP political bureau, which announced it will file a complaint on the case in Rabat and says it has been, since the kidnapping of Benbarka, calling for light to be shed on the crime and for prosecuting the authors of the crime. The USFP also says Moroccan socialists have been waging the truth-finding battle and have set up and supervised the defense team during the trial of Oufkir (a former interior minister) and Dlimi (a security official).

The USFP said it was part of the plaintiffs, together with the late opponent brother and expressed its readiness to live up to its commitments through a series of decisions.

On Thursday, Morocco's communication and culture minister, Mohamed Achaari, said the cabinet meeting on the same day did not react to the complaint lodged by the USFP following latest revelations published by newspapers on the Benbarka case.

Previous Stories:
  Moroccan justice minister tells French Parliament of human rights progress   (2/4/2000)
  Moroccan Human Rights Association voices will to carry on struggle for human dignity   (12/10/1999)

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