Casablanca Courts Face Closure as Covid-19 Cases Surge Among Judicial Staff

This explosion of cases is due to the laxity observed in the management, monitoring and support of the health crisis due to the coronavirus, explains the in-house union in a press release. The courts concerned by this closure are the registry offices where the increase in active cases and deaths among the judicial staff is observed, reports Médias24.

For Me Mohamed Aghnaj, member of the Casablanca Bar Council, the health authorities must take all measures to ensure the protection of staff and litigants in the exercise of judicial activities. According to a member of the Casablanca union office who requested anonymity, alternatives have been proposed to allow the courts to continue their activities. Among these proposals, there is the implementation of a rotation within the courts where the situation has not yet exploded".

If this member of the judicial staff maintains that there had been monitoring, contact tracing and support for confirmed cases, he deplores the absence of this salutary approach. "For the past week, no more follow-up has been done. Previously, PCR tests were done either within the courts or in health facilities... In any case, there was monitoring, contact tracing and support for confirmed cases. This is no longer the case since last week, people who test positive for Covid-19 are left to their own devices," he regrets.

As of Wednesday, December 2, 2,100 tests have been carried out at the level of the judicial districts of Casablanca, announces the Minister of Justice, Mohammed Benabdelkader. This has allowed the identification of 120 positive cases and 2 deaths, he specifies. According to him, the same number of deaths was recorded in the districts of Rabat and Marrakech. In Fez and Rabat, 176 and 162 active cases respectively have been recorded. To reduce this drama in the courts of the great metropolis, the unions propose to digitize certain services and plead for lawyers and their assistants to avoid traveling by public transport to request a copy of a court decision. "This is why we have created an email address to allow lawyers to send us their requests and pick them up after 24 hours". These will already be ready, which will reduce the waiting time in the corridors, recalls the same source.