Kenitra court sentences obstetrician to five years in prison for bribery

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.