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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Sources:

• https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/an-organ-trafficking-conviction-in-kosovo
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/01/08/a-cruel-harvest-of-the-poor-israeli-allegedly-behind-human-organ-black-market-arrested-in-cyprus/