Kosovo arrests four over alleged organ trafficking

PRISTINA: Kosovo police said Friday they had arrested four people, including two women, on suspicion of involvement in organ trafficking. The four are suspected of "illegal transplantation and trafficking of human organs and cells", a police statement said.

They were arrested on Thursday during a raid on a private clinic in the Pristina region, it said. One of the four suspects had been released while three will remain in 48-hour detention, the statement added.

Seized evidence include copies of medical documentation and other documents. No other details were provided. In April, police arrested two doctors and two nurses working at a private clinic in a Pristina suburb on suspicion of similar offences.

Last May, a Pristina court jailed two Kosovo doctors for harvesting kidneys and selling the organs to wealthy patients for up to 100,000 euros ($112,000) each. The two performed surgery on kidney donors brought to Kosovo mainly from Turkey, Russia, Moldova and Kazakhstan. Their kidneys were harvested and sold on to patients, mainly Israelis. The donors were paid just 15,000 euros each.

Urologist Lutfi Dervishi and anaesthetist Sokol Hajdini were jailed for seven-and-a-half years and one year respectively. The court heard the two doctors worked together at the Medicus clinic in Pristina in 2008.