Kosovo: Organ Trafficking Suspects To Stand Trial

An EU-run court in Kosovo has confirmed charges against five people suspected of involvement in an international network that trafficked people in Kosovo and sold their kidneys to foreign patients for illegal transplants.

EU's justice mission said in a statement that a panel of two international judges and a Kosovo judge will try defendants on charges of organ trafficking and organized crime as well as "unlawful exercise of medical activity" and "abuse of official position.

An Israeli and a Turkish suspect are still at large.

An EU prosecutor said in an indictment last year the suspects falsely promised poor people payment for their kidneys, then sold the organs for as much as $148,000.

compiled from agency reports