After arrest, Kosovo is seeking extradition of Moshe Harel

Israel, which was being requested by Interpol for organ trafficking in Kosovo, has been arrested this week.

Moshe Harel, a Turkish-born Israeli, is also known as the mediator of an alleged organ trafficking network in Kosovo. His role is allegedly to recruit donors, mostly from Turkey and Israel.

EULEX prosecutors accuse Harel and six others in the Medicus II case, including Turkish doctor Yusuf Ercin Sonmez, who left Kosovo avoiding arrest.

According to random data, donors were from Moldova, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkey, who were given false promises of 20,000 dollars in compensation. Their organs were transplanted into people from Israel, Canada, Germany, Poland and other countries.

The recipients had paid between 80,000 and 100,000 euros for their organs. Some of the donors had never taken the money.

Harel was arrested in Pristina in November 2008, but had left the country when he was released on bail by EULEX judges.

Kosovo had later issued international arrest for Harel.

He was arrested in 2012 in Israel but had not been extradited to Kosovo, which has no diplomatic relations with Israel.

Police discovered the organ trafficking network in November 2008, when 23-year-old Turkish Yilmaz Altun was caught at Pristina airport while waiting for home flight. When questioned, he said that he had given his kidney to an Israelite patient.

Altun told police that he was hospitalised alongside a 74-year-old man named Bezalel Shafran, who had paid $100,000 per kidney on the black market.

The operation was conducted at the Medicus clinic in Pristina.