Lions or Bullets?

Now that the ex-Sultan of Morocco was en route to exile in Tahiti with his wives and a streamlined harem, it was open season on his past in the French press. The government had deposed him for his anti-French activities and his flirtation with Moroccan nationalists. First came stories showing how he had played with the Nazis during the war. Last week France-Soir, the largest daily in Paris (circ. 955,600) broke an expose of Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef as a "bloody, sadistic Bluebeard." Among France-Soir's sensational charges:

P: Seven palace servants, accused of seducing five of the Sultan's concubines, were once haled before the wrathful monarch. "I wish to see your blood spilled," said the Sultan. "You shall die, but I give you your choice between a revolver bullet and the lions." Then sacks were pulled over the prisoners' heads and they were told to pray. At that moment, a few pious and powerful members of the Sultan's entourage implored him to spare the wretches' lives; one even predicted that Allah would be angry if the death penalty were carried out. After some moments of glum meditation, the Sultan said: "All right, I will spare them, but they will stay in prison to the end of their days."

P: One junior officer of the Sultan's imperial guard who seduced a concubine was sentenced to 1,000 blows of the whip, at the rate of 100 lashes a day. At the end of three days and 300 lashes, he died.

P: Once, when the Sultan sent male servants to flog some women for "a peccadillo," the men "were conquered by their charms and, tossing aside the implements of torment, subjected the pretty victims to a more tender treatment." The monarch found them in flagrante delicto; the women were whipped while the Sultan laughed at their screams, then thrown into foul cells, where they were kept on starvation rations. The men were also whipped and then chained to the walls of their cells. All twelve were released when Ben Youssef was deposed as Sultan. Previous victims of similar punishments died in their cells.

Knowledgeable French sources say that France-Soir's stories, though sometimes embellished, are essentially true. Some relatives of the dead victims, demanding blood money, have launched complaints in Casablanca, and an investigation has been started. Ben Youssef's implacable Berber enemy, the old Pasha of Marrakech, is supposed to have had a hand in spreading the stories. The French Foreign Office professes to be horrified. Digging up old tales about him at this time, said a Quai d'Orsay spokesman properly, is "not fair play."

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