The primary court in Kenitra has sentenced an obstetrician at the regional hospital to five years in prison and imposed a ten-year ban from practicing medicine, following her involvement in a bribery case. According to Assabah newspaper, technical investigations uncovered phone communications between the doctor and a middlewoman discussing payments in exchange for performing delivery procedures. Evidence also showed that the doctor accepted money for services that fell within her official duties as a public employee. The court also handed down sentences to others involved in the scheme: a midwife received four years in prison, two intermediaries were each sentenced to three years, and a private hospital security guard received one year. The case emerged after the midwife and the security guard were caught in the act of accepting a bribe for a cesarean section, as part of a security sting operation. Acting on the public prosecutor's instructions, the doctor and the middlewoman were placed in pre-trial detention at Souk El Arbaa El Gharb prison, while the intermediaries were held at Al Awad prison. The defendants were referred to a flagrante delicto session following an investigation that included phone confiscations and communication analysis, which revealed coordinated efforts to exploit pregnant women in need of care in exchange for illicit payments.
