Greek charged with kidney trafficking in Costa Rica
The trial of an organization that was buying kidneys from impoverished people and selling them to foreign recipients is set to begin next week in Costa Rica.
One of the alleged members of the organization is a Greek, D.K., who owned a pizzeria in the Central American country’s capital, San Jose.
“In 2009 and 2010, D.K. would seek foreign patients, typically Greeks, who needed a kidney transplant. Then he’d seek impoverished people willing to sell their kidneys, then set them up with doctors,” said the Costa Rican prosecutor, who confirmed to Kathimerini that at least three Greek nationals traveled to Costa Rica to undergo illegal kidney transplants.
Fourteen people who were paid between 5,000 and 18,000 US dollars to sell their kidneys are among the witnesses due to testify in the trial that is expected to last through early November.
D.K. was arrested in 2013, when police also nabbed four doctors, among them the director of a major San Jose hospital’s nephrology unit, for their involvement.
