Exile and Death
Three months after King Mohammed VI rose to the throne in 1999, succeeding Hassan II, Basri was at last discharged from his ministerial functions on November 9, 1999. He went to live in Paris. In March 2004, his Moroccan passport was terminated, leading Basri to become, in effect, an illegal alien in France. However, he still traveled (to Spain, etc.) and was not disturbed by the French police.
Basri was heard by the judge Patrick Ramaël in May 2006, as a witness, concerning Mehdi Ben Barka's kidnapping. Basri declared to the magistrate that he had not been linked to the Ben Barka Affair. He added that "it is possible that the King knew. It is legitimate to think that de Gaulle possessed some information…"
Driss Basri died in Paris on August 27, 2007. He was buried in Rabat on August 29; current Interior Minister in 2007 Chakib Benmoussa was the only representative of the government at the funeral.
Read more about this topic: Driss Basri
Famous quotes containing the words exile and/or death:
“The exile is a singular, whereas refugees tend to be thought of in the mass. Armenian refugees, Jewish refugees, refugees from Franco Spain. But a political leader or artistic figure is an exile. Thomas Mann yesterday, Theodorakis today. Exile is the noble and dignified term, while a refugee is more hapless.... What is implied in these nuances of social standing is the respect we pay to choice. The exile appears to have made a decision, while the refugee is the very image of helplessness.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“Such as the wreck of the Hesperus,
In the midnight and the snow!
Christ save us all from a death like this,
On the reef of Norman’s Woe!”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)