The Fez Criminal Appeal Chamber has decided to review the first instance judgment rendered in the infant trafficking network case. The sentence handed down against the main accused was increased from 3 to 4 years in prison, following her conviction for human trafficking, willful concealment of the identity of a child, fraud, threats and participation in the falsification of medical certificates.
Not only that, the revision of the sentences also affected a private security agent from the El Ghassani hospital, whose sentence was increased from 3 to 5 years in prison, following a reclassification of the accusations brought against him. A third accused, initially sentenced to 4 months in prison, saw his sentence increased on appeal to 3 years in prison. On the other hand, the first instance judgment was confirmed for the other accused.
Thus, the two daughters of the main accused were each sentenced to one year in prison, while the wife of his son received 4 months in prison, a sentence identical to that imposed on two other accused, including a doctor. Another doctor, the only one prosecuted on provisional release among the 35 accused in this case, was sentenced to 2 months in prison.
The network was dismantled last February, after several weeks of telephone tapping which made it possible to document conversations between the main suspects, confirming their involvement in infant trafficking and the falsification of medical certificates.
Morocco
