Fez Doctors Await Verdict in COVID-19 Test Trafficking Scandal

Presented before the court in the presence of their lawyers, the two defendants learned that their case has been postponed to next Wednesday, reports Al Massae. Their counsel pleaded for a delay in order to prepare the defense of their clients.

The case came to light in September when one of the defendants, practicing at the university hospital in Fez, was arrested in the act of receiving an amount of 500 DH from a woman in exchange for a coronavirus PCR screening test performed for one of her relatives.

Thanks to the preliminary investigation opened, his accomplice was identified and arrested. The investigations also made it possible to note that the two doctors had been operating for a long time. They had carried out up to 50 Covid-19 screening tests at the patients’ homes for 500 dirhams per person. Their modus operandi consisted of recording the names of the people tested in the hospital’s computer database. This approach allowed them to receive the test results of their clients like any other hospital user.