Mehdi Ben Barka was a leading figure in the Moroccan nationalist movement against French colonialism. After independence, he became the focal point for opposition to the autocratic rule of King Hassan II and a driving force behind the alliance of national liberation movements that came together at the 1966 Tricontinental Conference in Havana.

However, Ben Barka never made it to the conference. On October 29, 1965, he was approached by two police officers on his way to a well-known brasserie in central Paris. They led him to a car and then he was driven to a villa on the outskirts of Paris. He was never seen again.

It is likely that Ben Barka’s assassination was ordered by King Hassan II and carried out by his interior minister Mohamed Oufkir, who was convicted of the murder in absentia by a French court in 1967. Supporting roles were played by President Charles de Gaulle’s secret services, a network spanning parallel police forces and the criminal underworld, masterminded by his dirty-tricks fixer, Jacques Foccart, and by Israel’s national intelligence agency, Mossad.