Hassan II, King of Morocco, 1929-1999

King Hassan II, Born 9 July 1929, Rabat, Morocco; Died 23 July 1999 (aged 70), Rabat, Morocco; was King of Morocco from 1961 until his death in 1999. He was a member of the Alaouite dynasty. He was the eldest son of Mohammed V, Sultan, then King of Morocco (1909–1961), and his second wife, Lalla Abla bint Tahar (1909–1992). Hassan was known to be one of the most severe rulers of Morocco, widely accused of authoritarian practices and of being an autocrat and a dictator, particularly during the Years of Lead; Hassan was educated at the Royal Academy in Rabat, where a class created for him was instructed by a faculty including Mehdi Ben Barka. Hassan then earned a law degree from the University of Bordeaux.

He was exiled to Corsica by French authorities on 20 August 1953, together with his father Sultan Mohammed V. They were transferred to Madagascar in January 1954. Prince Moulay Hassan acted as his father's political advisor during the exile. Mohammed V and his family returned from exile on 16 November 1955.

Prince Moulay Hassan participated in the February 1956 negotiations for Morocco's independence with his father, who later appointed him Chief of Staff of the newly founded Royal Armed Forces in April 1956. In the unrest of the same year, he led army contingents battling rebels in the mountains of the Rif. Mohammed V changed the title of the Moroccan sovereign from Sultan to King in 1957. Hassan was proclaimed Crown Prince on 19 July 1957, and became King on 26 February 1961, after his father's death.

Hassan's rule, one characterized by a poor human rights record that was labelled as "appalling" and perhaps one of the worst in Africa. In June 1965, Hassan suspended the constitution of 1962, dissolved the Parliament, declared a state of emergency, and ruled directly, although he did not completely abolish the mechanisms of parliamentary democracy. When elections were eventually held, they were mostly rigged in favour of loyal parties. This caused severe discontent among the opposition, and protest demonstrations and riots challenged the King's rule. A US report observed that "Hassan appears obsessed with the preservation of his power rather than with its application toward the resolution of Morocco's multiplying domestic problems."

Morocco's human rights record was extremely poor during the period from the 1960s to the late 1980s, which was labelled as the "years of lead" and saw thousands of dissidents jailed, killed, exiled or forcibly disappeared. During this time, Morocco was one of the most repressive and undemocratic nations in the world. However, Morocco has been labelled as "partly free" by Freedom House, except in 1992 and 2014 when the country was labelled "Not free" in those years respectively. The country would only become more democratic by the early 1990s amid strong international pressure and condemnation over the nation's human rights record. Due to the strong rebuke from other nations and human rights groups, and also because of the realistic threat of international isolation, Hassan II would then gradually democratize the nation over time. Since then, Morocco's human rights record has improved modestly, and improved significantly following the death of Hassan II.

King Hassan II had extended many parliamentary functions by the early 1990s and released hundreds of political prisoners in 1991, and allowed the Alternance, where the opposition assumed power, for the first time in the Arab World. He set up a Royal Council for Human Rights to look into allegations of abuse by the State.

In the Cold War era, Hassan II allied Morocco with the West generally, and with the United States in particular. There were close and continuing ties between Hassan II's government and the CIA, who helped to reorganize Morocco's security forces in 1960. Hassan served as a back channel between the Arab world and Israel, facilitating early negotiations between them such as Operation Yachin to secretly migrate Moroccan Jews to Israel.

According to Shlomo Gazit of Israeli intelligence, Hassan II invited Mossad and Shin Bet agents to bug the Casablanca hotel where the Arab League Summit of September 1965 would be held to record the conversations of the Arab leaders. This information was instrumental in Israel's victory in the Six-Day War. According to Ronen Bergman, Mossad then supplied information leading to Mehdi Ben Barka's capture and assassination in October.

During Hassan II's reign, Morocco recovered the Spanish-controlled area of Ifni in 1969, and militarily seized two-thirds of Spanish Sahara through the "Green March" in 1975. The latter issue continues to dominate Moroccan foreign policy to this day. Relations with Algeria have deteriorated sharply due to the Western Sahara affair, as well as due to Moroccan claims on Algerian territory (Tindouf and Bechar), which unleashed the brief 1963 Sand War. Relations with Mauritania were tense too, as Morocco only recognized it as a sovereign country in 1969, nearly a decade after Mauritania's independence, because of Moroccan claims on the country (see Great Morocco). In 1985, Hassan II suspended Morocco's membership of the Organization of African Unity and enters into conflict with Burkinabe President Thomas Sankara because of his decision to recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

King Hassan II had five children with his wife Lalla Latifa Hammou, a member of the Zayane tribe, whom he married in 1961:

Princess Lalla Meryem (born on 26 August 1962 in Rome).
King Mohammed VI (born 21 August 1963 in Rabat).
Princess Lalla Asma (born on 29 September 1965 in Rabat).
Princess Lalla Hasna (born on 19 November 1967 in Rabat).
Prince Moulay Rachid (born on 20 June 1970 in Rabat).
The king had one other wife, Lalla Fatima bint Qaid Ould Hassan Amhourak (cousin of Latifa Hammou), whom he also married in 1961. They had no children.

The father of Hassan II was Mohammed V of Morocco and his mother was Lalla Abla bint Tahar. He had five sisters and one brother:

Lalla Fatima Zohra, born on 29 June 1929 in Rabat, died on 10 August 2014 in Cabo Negro (from the first marriage of Mohammed V of Morocco).
Lalla Aicha, born on 17 June 1930 in Rabat, died on 4 September 2011 in Rabat (from the second marriage of Mohammed V, with Lalla Abla).
Lalla Malika, born on 14 March 1933 in Rabat (from the second marriage of Mohammed V).
Moulay Abdallah, born on 30 July 1935 in Rabat, died on 20 December 1983 in Rabat (from the second marriage of Mohammed V).
Lalla Nuzha, born on 29 October 1940 in Rabat, died on 2 September 1977 in a car crash near Tétouan (from the second marriage of Mohammed V).
Lalla Amina, born on 8 April 1954 in Antsirabe, died on 16 August 2012 in Rabat (from the third marriage of Mohammed V of Morocco, with Lalla Bahia, died in August 2012 in Rabat).