Morocco's most troublesome political exile, Mehdi ben Barka, 45, flew into Paris from Geneva a fortnight ago and made a date for lunch at a Left Bank restaurant with some friends. He never showed up there or any place else.
French police began a nationwide search, for Ben Barka was no routine case. The founder of Morocco's leftist National Union Party, he has twice within the past two years been sentenced to death in absentia for plotting to overthrow King Hassan II. Such notoriety naturally led to speculation that political skulduggery might be involved.
For four days the police got nowhere. Then...