Trial Opens for 7 Kosovars in Organ-Trafficking Case

[Clark]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/world/europe/trial-opens-for-7-kosovars-in-organ-trafficking-case.html?_r=1

Trial Opens for 7 Kosovars in Organ-Trafficking Case
By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER

The trial of seven Kosovars accused of participating in an international organ trafficking ring opened here Tuesday.

The suspects are accused of luring victims from Turkey and former Communist countries to Pristina to sell their kidneys with false promises of payments of up to €15,000, or nearly $20,000.

The recipients, according to the indictment, paid between €80,000 and €100,000 for the organs.

The case has threatened to tarnish the image of the new country as it struggles to establish international credibility three years after declaring independence, and as it seeks integration into the European Union.

But the case is also a test of Kosovo’s efforts to build a culture of accountability before the law. Lawlessness is seen as endemic here and most Kosovars assume that corrupt officials will never be punished.

The proceedings were being run by Eulex, the European Union’s rule of law mission in Kosovo. In a shabby courtroom of the Pristina District Court, a three-member panel of Polish, American and Kosovar judges, along with international and Kosovar defense lawyers and prosecutors, heard the opening statement by a Eulex organized crime prosecutor.


“The black market in the removal and illegal transplant of human organs to others for the sole purpose of profit is an exploitation of the human condition in its most basic form,” the prosecutor, Jonathan Ratel, said. “It is the cruel harvest of the human person.”

The seven defendants sitting in the courtroom are tied to the private Medicus Clinic in a rundown neighborhood of Pristina. Five are medical personnel, one is the owner’s son, who ran the clinic, and another is a senior official at Kosovo’s Health Ministry, who is accused of issuing an illegal “invitation letter” for the victims. They have been charged with trafficking in persons, organized crime, unlawful exercise of medical activity and abuse of office.

The Medicus case, the prosecution said, is part of a “much larger organization engaged in the trafficking of humans and the removal and transplant of human organs for sale in several countries.”

The court planned to hear the testimony of two protected witnesses who prosecutors said had been recruited to sell their organs and subsequently received threats against testifying.

The case has been connected with an inquiry by the Council of Europe released this January, which found that a criminal group of Kosovo Liberation Army fighters had executed Serbian and Albanian prisoners and sold their organs on the international black market. The report said that the so-called Drenica Group was led by Hashim Thaci, the current prime minister of Kosovo.

Mr. Thaci has denied the accusations and has said he is ready to cooperate with any investigation.

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