Arrest of Israeli officer leading organ trafficking ring

[ 08/04/2010 - 11:33 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli police said Wednesday it arrested a senior military officer leading a human organ trafficking ring that deals with other gangs in Europe active in this kind of crimes, noting that the officer is involved in this scandal with other five Israelis.

The police added that this gang was discovered after they defrauded a Palestinian woman from Al-Nasser city and stole one of her kidneys taking advantage of her need for money, which prompted her to file a complaint that led to the arrest of the officer, two lawyers and Israeli citizens.

Haaretz newspaper reported that the woman underwent medical examinations to ensure a match, and she was then flown to a country in eastern Europe where they extracted her kidney.

The woman said that when she returned to the occupied Palestinian lands, she did not receive the money promised to her.

Police investigations indicated that this ring hunts their victims through internet and newspaper advertisements and sells one kidney for about $120,000 in European countries.

Similar crimes about human organ harvesting were reported worldwide last year including a report prepared by Swedish journalist Donald Bostrom accusing Israel of stealing human organs from thousands of Palestinian victims it has killed since 1960 especially during the first Palestinian Intifada (uprising).

US human rights activist T. West posted a video tape on Youtube website accusing Israeli soldiers participating in relief operations in Haiti of stealing organs from victims of the earthquake.

He revealed that staff at the Israeli ministry of war entered Haiti at the pretext of helping the quake-affected people in order to steal human organs.

An FBI sting in New Jersey also exposed last year an organ trafficking ring including Israeli rabbis that operated for more than a decade.

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