Sergej Lavrov: To shed light on human organs trafficking

Russia has the opportunity to prove that the authorities in Kosovo are illegitimate and could be connected with human organ trafficking, writes the Kommersant.

The newspaper is reporting that Russia has been conducting its own investigation into an illegal transplants case, and that an amount of significant material has already been gathered.

The daily says that a trial in Kosovo for those accused of illegal transplants and smuggling of human organs is entering its final phase, and that the perpetrators were allegedly local administration officials.

According to the Kommersant report - the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is insisting that "the state prosecution hands over the material to the EU", which has not happened yet. The Russian ministry is monitoring the process carefully as it could have serious political consequences, according to the report.

If the court finds the accused guilty, that would provide strong proof that practice of illegal transplants had been established in Kosovo, writes the newspaper, and quotes its Russian diplomatic sources as saying that there was likely a unified network for this in Kosovo, and that, "if (former Hague Prosecutor) Carla Del Ponte and Dick Marty are to be believed", it worked with the support of the Kosovo authorities.

The Investigative Committee of Russia in 2011 started criminal proceedings and discovered several victims of illegal transplants, whose testimony could prove important for the outcome of the trial currently underway in Pristina.

The newspaper further says that "since last spring, EULEX representatives have been regularly inquiring when the Russian material would arrive, because they counted on being able to consider statements from the Russian victims on January 12", and adds that the material was not sent to EULEX, while a decision to do so should have been made by the Russian Prosecution.

A spokesman for the Investigative Committee told the daily that criminal proceedings were launched in July 2011, against a trans-national criminal group, while citizens of Russia and other countries were identified as victims. Two Russians are officially regarded as victims. In 2008, both underwent surgeries in Priština when their kidneys were extracted.

The committee further said, according to Kommersant, that they were "swindled, because they were paid less than promised", and that "a complex expertise of the case is planned". The daily says that the next court date in Priština in the Medicus case would be held in the coming weeks, and that the Russian State Prosecution did not say why the material in question has not been sent to EULEX.