IS BEN BARKA DEAD? PARIS WONDERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000100360049-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 1, 1999
• Sequence Number: 49
• Publication Date: January 28, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

CPYRGHT WASHINGTON PO~~S,,TT
Approved For Release 2001/07/26 F,~0(10100360
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Is Ben parka dead? Paris Wonders
By Waverley Root
Washington Post Forelsn Service
-o doubt is beginning to fall vidence thatl Ben Barka was sistance to French pressure
o Paris- Is nlehdi Ben Baead- ssassinated is the testimony leads thatlthebMoroccans may
t e Moroccan opposition lead- pc
`e really dead? A Georges Figon, a ringleader suddenly produce Ben Barka
` The accepted version has n the kidnaping. He cannot and thus deflate the French
en that Ben Barka was kid- charges against them.
ped by two French police be questioned- further since he There are other stories. One
en on Oct. 29; that they drove s dead; he either killed him- is that Ben Barka's head was'
m to a suburban villa and self or was executed to keep sent to Morocco in a box. An-
nded him over to a group of him from talking. other is that the Moroccans
t ugs in the pay of Morocca Figon told a story of the who came with Oufkir pros-
I terlor Minister Gen. Mo kidnaping in which he de- peeted a small wood near the
nmed Oufkir; that Oufkir ar scribed, as, an eyewitness, the Orly airport looking for a
ved next day, and that Be torture of Ben Barka by Ouf- good place to bury the body.
arks was then murdered kir in the first villa to which [A tape-recording seized In
ut there is no corpse. he was taken. He apparently Figon's home after his death
About the only person her assumed that the Moroccan was played in court today and
ieves that Be leader had been killed in a was found to be the scenario,
o firmly bel
J.bI
rka is alive is Abdelkad second villa to which he was of a gangster film Figon wall
Barka, who says hi then moved. But admittedly, writing, the Associated Press
ther was kidnaped to appl Figoti was trot at the second reported. It was hoped that-
itical pressure to the M villa.the tape would contain thb
an'situatn'andwho'note One theory Is that Ben confession Figon Is said to.
"yocan't negotiate wit Barka was taken to Brest, and have made of his role in the.
o smuggled'. aboard, a freighter ben Barka kidnaping
The o Ica c arge in melibouna morocco, wne
ase remains that of kidnap- may now be imprisoned.
I
Approved For Release 2001/07/26 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000100360049-2