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Organ Trafficking Part: 2
Episode 724th January 2022 • Speaking for the Silenced • Hopewell Valley Student Publication Network
00:00:00 00:06:31

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Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network 

Show Name:  Speaking for the Silenced

Episode 7:  Organ Trafficking: Part 2

Tune into this week’s episode of #SpeakingfortheSilenced!

You are listening to Speaking for the Silenced podcast with your host(s) Jacqueline Sun.

In this episode of Speaking for the Silenced, we will end a two-part segment discussing organ trafficking. Today, we will focus on a real-life incident of trafficking that occurred in Kosovo in 2008.

Segment 1: Background

  • Victim’s name is Yilmaz Altun, located in Pristina, Kosovo
  • Fainted in middle of airport due to wound from organ removal
  • It was found that the organ donation was conducted a clinic in Pristina called Medicus
  • Medicus was a chain of organ trafficking clinics that were designed solely for the purpose of making profit.
  • Preyed on the poor and vulnerable
  • Crime ring was operated by Lutfi Dervishi and his son, both Kosovo physicians.
  • Actual organ removal was conducted by Yusuf Ercin Sonmez, a Turkish surgeon
  • The main operators of Medicus had been on the run for some time, evading capture since their operations were exposed in 2008. 
  • However, a few have been incarcerated

Segment 2:  Even more twisted origins

  • The Medicus Case has an even more complex twist
  • Council of Europe found connections with Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)
  • Terrorist group that sought to seprate Kosovo from Yugoslavia
  • The KLA reportedly began organ trafficking in 1999
  • People and authorities have even began to suspect that Hashim Thaci, Prime minister of 
  • So how is the link between Medicus and the KLA established?
  • Kidneys harvested from the Serbian captives were transported to Sonmez, the doctor who was involved in the transplants in Medicus
  • Public hoped that Medicus could be linked back to the KLA and ex Prime Minister Thaci. 

Music Credits:   

Brooklyn and the Bridge by Nico Staf

  • At the Restaurant by Monolog Rockstars

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