Six Kosovar doctors face charges of illegal organ trafficking

Six doctors denied running an illegal organ transplant clinic in Kosovo this week, in a case that has been linked to an international network of organised criminals.

Details of the allegations against doctors involved in the Medicus clinic, in a suburb north of the capital Pristina, emerged at a confirmation hearing in the city’s district court.

EU prosecutor Jonathan Ratel told the judge that Russians, Moldovans, Kazakhs, and Turks were lured into the capital “with the false promise of payments” for their kidneys after meeting brokers in Turkey.

After blood tests that matched them with suitable recipients, between 20 and 30 “donors” are said then to have been given plane tickets to Pristina airport between 1 January and 4 November 2008.

They were taken to the clinic, just a few kilometres from the airport, where their kidneys …