Indian Transplant Newsletter Vol. 12 Issue NO.: 38 (Mar 2013 - Jun 2013)
Print ISSN 0972 - 1568

Doctor brought to book for international organ trafficking

Indian Transplant Newsletter.
Vol. 12 Issue NO.: 38 (Mar 2013 - Jun 2013)
Print ISSN 0972 - 1568
Print PDF


A panel of two European Union judges and one Kosovo judge brought to book a urologist and his son for international organ trafficking in Kosovo. The father-son duo took kidneys from poor donors lured by financial promises. The father, Lutfi Dervishi, was sentenced to eight years in prison and his son Arban Dervishi to seven years and three months. Both also received fines and Lutfi Dervishi was barred from practising urology for two years. In addition, the court ordered them to pay partial compensation of 15,000 Euros to each of the seven victims who testified during the proceedings.

 

All the donors and recipients were foreign nationals. Seven donors who testified were from Israel, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Turkey. They described how they were flown into Kosovo from Istanbul and then quickly wheeled into surgery in a medical facility named "Medicus" on the outskirts of Kosovo's capital, Pristina. The victims were promised $10,000 to $12,000 in return for their kidneys, but many said they were never paid.

 

The donors' kidneys were removed for transplantation into people who paid up to 130,000 Euros for the procedure. The recipients were mostly wealthy patients from places such as Israel, Poland, Canada, the U.S. and Germany.

 

At least 24 kidney transplants, involving 48 donors and recipients, were carried out between 2008 and 2009, the period the case covered.

 

The donors “were alone, did not speak the language, uncertain of what they were doing and had no one to protect their interest,” the court's reasoning read. “Some donors had severe second thoughts at the clinic, but were given no opportunity to back out and were psychologically pressured into going forward with the surgery.”

 

“In every sense this was the cruel harvest of the poor and weak in our society,” Jonathan Ratel, a Canadian prosecutor who brought the charges as part of European Union's rule of law mission in Kosovo, said after the verdicts.

 


To cite : Shroff S , Navin S. Doctor brought to book for international organ trafficking. Indian Transplant Newsletter Vol. 12 Issue NO.: 38 (Mar 2013 - Jun 2013).
Available at:
https://www.itnnews.co.in/indian-transplant-newsletter/issue38/Doctor-brought-to-book-for-international-organ-trafficking-91.htm

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