Ahmed Dlimi Ahmed Dlimi ( ; b . 1931 , Sidi Kacem – d . 22 January 1983 , Marrakech ) was a Moroccan General under the rule of Hassan II . After General Mohamed Oufkir ' s 1972 assassination , he became Hassan II ' s right - hand man . He was promoted to General during the Green March in 1975 , and took charge of the Moroccan Armed Forces in the Southern Zone , where the military were fighting the Polisario Front . Ahmed Dlimi was also a member of the royal Military Council and in charge of the Army ' s security service abroad . He died in January 1983 , officially in a car crash , although allegations have been made that he was assassinated . He was is accused of being responsible for the death of Mehdi Ben Barka in November 1965 . Before the Green March . Ahmed Dlimi headed the Moroccan security services and played an important role as a military supporter of King Hassan II during the Years of lead . A collaborator of Interior Minister Mohamed Oufkir , he was accused of numerous human rights violations . He was reportedly connected to the " disappearance " of the exiled opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka , leader of the left - wing National Union of Popular Forces ( UNPF ) and of the non - aligned Tricontinental Conference , in 1965 , in Paris , France According to the first judicial investigation , Ahmed Dlimi was in Paris , along with General Oufkir , at the time of Ben Barka ' s kidnapping . Former dissident and prisoner Ali Bourequat has also directly accused Dlimi of taking part in Ben Barka ' s assassination . After two failed coup attempts in 1970 and 1972 ( the latter of which involved the assistance of General Oufkir ) , Dlimi was entrusted with increasingly important tasks and promoted to the rank of General . He eventually replaced Oufkir as right - hand man to Hassan II . Some sources claim that he personally executed his superior , General Mohamed Oufkir , on the orders of the King , after Oufkir was found responsible for the coup d ' état of 1972 . After 1975 . After the Green March in 1975 , during which Morocco annexed Western Sahara , a former administrative part of Spanish Morocco , General Dlimi became head of staff of the Moroccan Armed Forces in this territory . Western Sahara was then claimed both by Morocco and by the Polisario Front , which initiated a guerrilla against Rabat . In 1980 , Dlimi initiated the construction of a wall , stating it was to protect the annexed Western Sahara from the Polisario ' s attacks . The latter became increasingly restricted to its base , Tindouf , in Algeria . Ahmed Dlimi was increasingly viewed as the main military strongman of Morocco . However , in January 1983 , he was killed in a car accident just after meeting the King in his palace at Marrakech . However , there are allegations that he was assassinated after attempting to organize a coup against King Hassan II , or that he was killed for having become too powerful , and a threat to the monarchy . The French correspondent of " Le Monde " newspaper was expelled from Morocco for expressing doubts about the official account of Dlimi ' s death . The assassination theory has been supported by dissident Ahmed Rami in March 1983 , who exiled himself to Sweden after the failed coup of 1972 in which he had taken part . Rami alleged that he had clandestinely met with Dlimi in Stockholm in December 1982 , and that they were preparing a coup against Hassan II , due for July 1983 . Dlimi was allegedly part of the " Independent Officers " who intended to overthrow the monarchy , in order to put an end to the regime ' s corruption and human rights violations . They aimed to establish a " Democratic Arab Islamic Republic of Morocco " and to negotiate with the Polisario Front . According to Ahmed Rami , several young military officers were arrested mid - January 1983 . Dlimi himself was also arrested , interrogated and tortured in the royal palace , before his death being set up as a car - crash . Dlimi is said to have advocated a closer relationship to France in order to counter US influence . Rami wrote that : " Hassan ' s closest circle , which also counts foreign secret agents , very well knows the circumstances of Dlimi ' s death . " This veiled allusion to the CIA was elaborated upon by Rami , who claimed that the CIA was investigating Dlimi as a secret member of the " Independent Officers " ; that they had filmed the Stockholm meeting between them , and had ultimately delivered this video to Hassan II . Morocco was at the time a very close ally of the United States . Hassan II had sent troops to Zaire in 1977 and 1978 to support US intervention , and also assisted UNITA in Angola since the mid - 1970s . He had agreed to the setting up of a CIA station in Morocco , which became one of its key installations in Africa . Hassan II had visited US Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and the State Secretary Al Haig in 1981 , as well as the president of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the Deputy Director of the CIA . After Dlimi ' s death , fifteen other officers were arrested and three of them executed . No one was allowed to see Ahmed Dlimi ' s corpse .