The 33-year-old, a silver medallist in the 10,000 metres at the 2014 African Championships, had been provisionally suspended by the AIU in August.

The AIU revealed that El Aziz tested positive for the banned blood booster at a road race in Karlovac in Croatia on June 7 and again a week later at an event in Langueux in France.

Both samples contained traces of EPO.  

El Aziz claimed after being notified of the result of the first test that he had not ingested EPO but did not ask for his B-sample to be analysed.

He then failed to respond to further correspondence from the AIU and has now been banned.

El Aziz had won the race in Karlovac in 28min 24sec and finished second in Langueux in 28:02. 

He will now be stripped of the results in both races. 

Besides finishing second at the African Championships in Marrakech behind Eritrea's Nguse Amlosom, the most notable result of El Aziz's career was in 2016 when he set a Moroccan record for the half-marathon at Valencia of 59:29.

He also had a personal best for the marathon of 2 hours 07min 55sec in Seoul in 2013. 

Morocco had been placed on a "watch list" of countries most at risk of doping by the International Association of Athletics Federations but were removed in 2017.

Earlier this month, German broadcaster ARD aired a programme about doping in Morocco.

They claimed there remained in the country "a doping culture" and was "a paradise for sports cheats". 

To read the full decision by the AIU click here.