KOSOVO ORGAN TRAFFICKING MASTERMIND ARRESTED

"We have received information that Moshe Harel has been arrested in Israel on organ trafficking and other related offences. We are seeking confirmation with the Israeli authorities," he told AFP.

If confirmed, the arrest could lead to a breakthrough in the trial of seven people accused of organ trafficking and illegal transplants at the Medicus clinic in Priština in 2008, the French agency said.

Harel was arrested in Priština that year but fled Kosovo after he was released from detention.

Kosovo authorities subsequently issued an international arrest warrant.

According to the indictment, at least 30 illegal kidney removals and transplants were carried out in the Priština clinic in 2008.

The donors were from poor Eastern European and Central Asian countries, who were promised about EUR 15,000 to become organ donors.

The indictment describes the Israeli national as the mastermind of a network for recruiting donors and finding recipients.

The seven suspects on trial include former Kosovo Health Secretary Ilir Rexhaj and Lutfi Dervishi, a prominent Priština urologist.

Another suspect in the case is Turkish doctor Yusuf Sonmez, accused of having carried out illegal operations to remove organs. He is also indicted in Turkey.

The Kosovo clinic was raided by police in 2008 after a Turkish man collapsed at Priština airport waiting for a flight back to Istanbul after having his kidney removed.

The case is being tried by EULEX, set up to help the local judiciary handle sensitive cases after the territory declared independence from Serbia in 2008, concludes AFP.