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EU Judge Confirms Charges in Kosovo Organ Trafficking Case

04 March 2011 20:07 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. A European Union judge in Kosovo has ruled that a former government health official and three other people can be tried on charges linked to an organ trafficking case, APA reports quoting â€œThe Voice of Americaâ€.
The EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, known as EULEX, announced Friday that the judge confirmed the indictment against former Kosovo Health Secretary Ilir Rrecaj and the three other defendants on counts of unlawful exercise of medical activity and abuse of authority. But the judge dismissed the other counts of trafficking in persons and organized crime.
The EU says the prosecution plans to appeal the ruling.
The other three defendants include surgeon Lufti Dervishi and doctors Driton Jilta and Sokol Hajdini.
The charges center around the Medicus Clinic in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, which has been named as the site of an organ harvesting operation. Prosecutors say poor people were lured from across Eastern Europe and Central Asia and falsely promised payments for their organs. They say recipients of the organs would pay as much as $140,000 each.
Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci has been accused of links to the organ trade.
A Council of Europe report last year said criminal gangs used the Medicus Clinic to continue to harvest organs after the Kosovo conflict.
The report named Prime Minister Thaci as the head of the criminal gang that profited from the organ trade. The report said there are â€œnumerous indicationsâ€ the former Kosovo Liberation Army killed Serb prisoners held at a special detention center and then sold their kidneys on the black market.
Mr. Thaci has denied the allegations, calling them an attempt to undermine Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia.