Position: Morocco's Head of State
Incumbent: King Mohammed VI
Date of Birth: Aug. 21, 1963
Term: Enthroned in July, 1999.
Key Facts:
-- King Mohammed ascended to the throne when his father, King Hassan, died. He is the 23rd ruler from the Alaouite Dynasty that has been governing Morocco for close to 350 years.
Claiming descent from Prophet Mohammad, the dynasty rose to power on an agenda of unifying the country and recovering areas occupied by European states.
-- In a break with his father's reign, during which hundreds were tortured and killed at the hands of the government, King Mohammed quickly moved to clean up Morocco's human rights record. Victims and their families were compensated but none of killers named or punished.
-- The 47-year-old ruler has had some success in repairing the bleak legacy of human right abuses, high illiteracy and poverty left to him after his father's 38-year rule. Critics say he could have done much better had he prevented his inner circle and the security apparatus from interfering in business and politics.
-- King Mohammed has also placed more emphasis on economic and social development. He launched ambitious tourism and infrastructure development projects. Morocco became a major holiday destination and a manufacturing and services platform for international firms wishing to enter African markets.
-- The Moroccan economy has managed to sustain unprecedented growth under his rule, but critics point to an uneven geographic distribution of resources that still leaves millions of Moroccans in precarious living conditions.
-- Under a revised constitution he proposed, King Mohammed should remain head of the army, the judiciary and the religious authority. He can dissolve parliament and has a central role in choosing who is in the government.
-- King Mohammed and the royal family are the biggest shareholders in National Investment Co (SNI), a major conglomerate that has significant stakes in the country's biggest bank, dairy firm, sole sugar refiner, cooking oil, cement and steel manufacturers. SNI's 2010 net consolidated profits accounted for 27 percent of total net profits made by companies listed in the Casablanca bourse.
-- When he was four, the future king joined the royal palace Islamic school in Rabat to learn the Koran. This was in preparation for the role he would assume on becoming king, Commander of the Faithful. He was appointed by his father as coordinator of the armed forces in 1985 before being promoted to the rank of major-general nine years later.
-- In 1988, he worked as a trainee with Jacques Delors, then president of the European Commission, before obtaining a doctorate in law in 1993 from the French Nice Sophia Antipolis University for his thesis on ties between Maghreb countries and the European Union.
-- King Mohammed is married to Princess Salma, the first wife of a Moroccan king to have been publicly acknowledged and given a royal title. They have two children: Crown Prince Hassan 8, and Princess Khadija 4. (Compiled by Souhail Karam)
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