Lebanon’s Court of Audit has convicted a nurse and a physician at Rafik Hariri University Hospital for smuggling cancer medications intended for pediatric patients and using them for personal financial gain, Nidaa Al-Watan newspaper revealed.

In a decision issued on December 11, the Court’s Second Chamber, chaired by Judge Abdel Reda Nasser, found nurse Elissar Sobhi Hammoud and Dr. Hassan Khalifa guilty of diverting cancer drugs and medical supplies from the public hospital to a private clinic. The court described the acts as “embezzlement and waste of public funds,” carried out “for purely personal material benefit, with no connection whatsoever to the public interest.”

According to the ruling, Hammoud worked evening shifts at Khalifa’s private clinic while employed at Rafik Hariri University Hospital.

Through collusion between them, the court said, she smuggled pediatric cancer medications and other medical supplies from the hospital and transferred them to Khalifa’s clinic.

Testimony cited in the decision showed that Hammoud removed Novabon and Neutromax medications belonging to children treated in the hospital’s day-care unit and delivered them to the private clinic. One drug belonged to a child identified as Mohammad A. Instead of being returned to the hospital pharmacy, it was transported by a porter to Khalifa’s clinic.

The court found that Hammoud also smuggled around 50 Huber needles obtained from patients’ families, attempted to divert Carboplatin belonging to a deceased patient, and manipulated injection doses by giving children only partial quantities without returning the remainder. As a result, the ruling said, she stole all surplus quantities from patients who receive cancer medications free of charge through the Ministry of Public Health.

The decision stated that Khalifa was the primary beneficiary of the scheme. In addition to charging patients consultation and treatment fees, he used the smuggled medications in his private practice “in exchange for payment for drugs that are originally provided free of charge by the Ministry of Public Health.”

The charges against Hammoud and Khalifa were first raised in a 2019 Court of Audit ruling, Decision No. 37, which addressed part of the broader scandal but did not close the file on other individuals or acts. In its continued review, the court documented the smuggling of cancer drugs and expired medical items based on testimonies and documents obtained under its legal authority to investigate suspected embezzlement and waste of public funds.

The process of documenting the violations stretched over more than five years, from April 2019 to December 2025. While the length of the proceedings has raised questions about delayed justice, the ruling has brought renewed attention to a case that has plagued Rafik Hariri University Hospital since at least 2014 and intersects with an earlier scandal dating back to 2009 involving the former head of the pharmacy department, Mona Baalbaki.

According to testimony cited in the ruling by pharmacist Samer Al-Sammak, who later headed the hospital’s pharmacy department, medications worth 99 million Lebanese pounds were returned to the Health Ministry in 2014 and a further 5.5 million pounds in 2015. This, the court said, “indicates that in the past there were large quantities that were not returned to their rightful owners and were therefore stolen,” adding that it was impossible to determine the full scale because surplus medications were not properly logged or returned to storage.

The ruling also referenced an internal hospital investigation dating back to 2013. An inventory conducted on March 13, 2013 revealed shortages of 16 Neutromax injections and 775 Methotrexate injections, confirming that cancer drugs had been smuggled out of the hospital.

In her defense, Hamoud argued that inventory discrepancies could not be attributed to her, noting that Al-Sammak only assumed his post in 2014–2015 and that the pharmacy had previously been managed by Baalbaki. While the court accepted this argument within the narrow framework of financial accountability, it said the former head of the pharmacy must be given the opportunity to respond.

The court granted Baalbaki 30 days to submit her defense, stressing the need to respect “the principles of objectivity, transparency, and the right to defense.”

Baalbaki has been at the center of a controversial cancer drug procurement deal dating back to 2009, which has been under criminal investigation since 2014. In 2017, the Higher Disciplinary Council dismissed her from her duties and asked the health minister to permanently revoke her license to practice pharmacy “to protect patient safety.” She later failed to attend court hearings to complete the investigation.

A disciplinary statement issued in 2017 also indicated that several employees and doctors had assisted Baalbaki in some of her violations and remained in their posts without punishment, calling for expanded investigations and the referral of criminal acts to the public prosecutor.

The Court of Audit ruling stressed that the violations uncovered were not isolated incidents but part of a broader pattern of “systemic corruption” involving the abuse of free medical resources over many years. The court said the focus should be on dismantling the network that enabled the misuse of cancer medications, rather than on individual acts alone, given the serious impact on patients’ right to treatment.

The ruling also pointed to what it described as judicial “slowness,” which allowed those involved to evade accountability for years, despite the gravity of the offenses and the vulnerability of the patients affected.

The court rejected Hammoud’s attempt to deny the charges, citing a written confession dated Feb. 2, 2012. In that statement, she admitted receiving Neutromax medication intended for a child patient and transferring it to Khalifa’s clinic, as well as removing pediatric cancer drugs from the hospital pharmacy and smuggling them out “concealed in a food bag.” She also acknowledged entering medical orders under Khalifa’s name using her own password and supplying him with medical equipment for use in his private practice.

“These confessions constitute strong evidence,” the court said, noting that a confession is “the master of evidence” and cannot be withdrawn without proof of coercion.

Hammoud was fined the maximum penalty under Article 60 of the Court of Audit Law, plus an additional fine equivalent to her net salary for 12 months. The court ordered the issuance of a collection order against her totaling 744,087,500 Lebanese pounds.

Khalifa, who did not submit any defense despite being formally notified, was also fined the maximum penalties under Articles 60 and 61 of the law. A collection order of the same amount—744,087,500 Lebanese pounds—was issued against him. The court said the sums correspond to the value of smuggled medications and supplies, including Neutromax, Methotrexate and hundreds of Huber needles.