1933 - 1975
Moroccan political activist.
Umar Ben Jelloun, born in Oujda, studied law and telecommunications in Paris, and was president of the Association of Muslim North African Students. In the late 1950s, he was among Mehdi Ben Barka's supporters within the Istiqlal Party, and joined him in the breakaway from it and the formation of the Union Nationale des Forces Populaires (UNFP). He was a member of the UNFP's national committee and political bureau and director of its newspaper, al-Muharrir. His duties led to clashes with trade union leaders over their alleged corruption and advancement of their personal interests. Ben Jelloun served several prison terms, underwent torture, and was sentenced to death in 1963 (pardoned in 1965). He was tried again in 1973 for plotting to overthrow the government and acquitted on 30 August, but was held and charged with another offense. In 1974 he received a limited pardon. Ben Jelloun was murdered by unknown assailants on 18 December 1975, in Casablanca. Clement Henry Moore described Ben Jelloun as a major casualty of a political system whose rules he rejected.
— BRUCE MADDY-WEITZMAN
