France: L'Affaire Est Finie

No sooner had Moroccan Opposition Leader Mehdi ben Barka disappeared during a visit to Paris 20 months ago, than a rumor began to make the rounds that the American C.l.A. was behind the abduction. Even Charles de Gaulle allowed as to how that was probably the case. Then, to the French President's chagrin, it became clear that his own police, acting in cahoots with Moroccan officials and the Parisian underworld, had engineered the whole operation. "A vulgar and minor affair," said De Gaulle in airy dismissal.

Ben Barka would not go away that easily. The French press and public kept it alive with muckraking relish. Eventually the flics collared two of their own vice-squad men, one part-time informer for the French and Moroccan secret services, one ranking French secret-service official, one Moroccan cop and one journalist who was also a police informer. They also implicated four French underworld types they could not lay their hands on and Moroccan Interior Minister Mohamed Oufkir and his deputy, Ahmed Dlimi, who were both safe at home.

During 74 days of hearings and trial sessions, an endless procession of witnesses, ranging from ambassadors to ex-convicts, turned up at the Palais de Justice. Judges and jury were harangued by 15 lawyers and deluged with more than 5,000 documents. Last week the trial finally came to a halt. Only two defendants drew any significant rap: the part-time secret-service agent got eight years in prison; a vice-squad cop six. Oufkir, still safe in Morocco, was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment, as were the four French gangsters who are still on the lam. Colonel Dlimi, who dramatically surrendered to French police during the trial, was acquitted along with the remaining defendants.

All of which cleared the way for a resumption of normal relations between France and Morocco—even though one vital question remained unanswered: What happened to Ben Barka?