The Criminal Chamber of First Instance of the Court of Appeal in Casablanca rejected, on Thursday, the request for provisional release for the benefit of 8 individuals, including Dr. El Hassane Tazi, plastic surgeon-owner of a private clinic and his wife , prosecuted for human trafficking, fraud and forgery and use of forgery in connection with medical bills.
During this first hearing, the defense had requested the provisional release of the defendants who have all the guarantees to appear in court at any time. After deliberations, the court dismissed this request.
The same court decided to hold the next hearings in the presence of the accused, unlike the first hearing which took place by videoconference.
It should be noted that the Criminal Trial Chamber at the Court of Appeal in Casablanca had postponed this trial to May 4, 2023 to allow the defense to prepare its case.
These individuals, prosecuted for the counts of trafficking in human beings, fraud and forgery and use of forgery in connection with medical care bills, had been subjected to the judicial investigation carried out under the supervision of the competent public prosecutor’s office before being presented before the courts, which decided to prosecute five of them in detention and the others in a state of freedom
The General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) had indicated that the investigation revealed the involvement of the defendants in the creation of a criminal gang aimed at collecting sums of money from benefactors under the guise of paying hospitalization costs for destitute patients, treated in the clinic where the majority of the suspects practice who fraudulently inflated the bills in order to extract large sums of money.
The intensive research and investigations carried out by the National Security services had led to the arrest of the main defendant, who established contact with the supposed patients and took photos of them under the pretext of helping them, before using these photos. to raise large donations, justified by means of falsified invoices and false reports and medical check-ups, in complicity with his acolytes.