Czech Archives Reveal Mehdi Ben Barka’s Alleged Role as Soviet Spy in 1960s Arab World

New revelations about Mehdi Ben Barka. According to the Czech researcher, author of a study based on declassified archives of the Czechoslovak secret services, the most important task the StB (Czechoslovak State Security) entrusted to the leader of the Third World movement was "probably that of spying on Arab leaders during the visit of the Soviet leader Khrushchev to Egypt in May 1964." Ben Barka "provided so much valuable information behind the scenes, which was passed on to the KGB [Soviet intelligence service] via the Czechoslovak resident in Cairo, that the KGB itself congratulated him for it," Jan Koura told Middle East Eye.

For Bachir Ben Barka, Mehdi Ben Barka’s son, these are "deliberately fabricated incriminating pseudo-revelations." "Prague was the headquarters of progressive international organizations [World Federation of Trade Unions, International Union of Students, etc.], the mandatory passage for political leaders of international organizations such as the Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organization [AAPSO], to join certain African, Asian and Cuban capitals," he defended in a statement. "From a purely practical point of view, their travel and accommodation tickets were paid either directly by the treasuries of these organizations, or subcontracted by the local solidarity committees [for example, the Czechoslovak committee], which served as relays for the international financial aid of the socialist camp," adds the son of the former opponent of Hassan II.

In the eyes of the Czech historian, this argument does not hold water. "A Czechoslovak resident in Cairo told him directly that he would collect information for the KGB and the same person then reimbursed him for the purchase of furniture for his apartment in Cairo," he added. Returning to the awards, Jan Koura claims that they were "financial rewards in various currencies" given to Mehdi Ben Barka "directly by StB officers in Prague and other countries." "The awards are recorded in StB documents as well as in the summary tables of Ben Barka’s file that the StB kept with the date, amount and a brief justification. Mehdi Ben Barka was very intelligent. He could not think that ordinary diplomats could give him money in exchange for documents or the execution of certain tasks," he insists.

And he concludes: the Moroccan "knew perfectly well that he was dealing with intelligence agents rather than embassy attachés, who themselves do not remunerate for this type of mission."