A police squad has detained seven suspects, including three foreigners, in connection with an illegal organ transplant scheme at an undisclosed private hospital in Istanbul, according to reports on Tuesday.
A team from the Special Police Branch and Border Gate Branch, which fights migrant smuggling, launched an investigation on a tip-off against a couple who were posing as a married couple to carry out transplant procedures using fake identity documents.
According to the information received, the couple was of Algerian and Palestinian nationality.
Furthermore, it was revealed that the couple who used the pseudonyms E. Abdallag and S. Taha were not married, and that E. Abdallag’s real name was S. Sidhu.
Further investigation revealed that the couple had contacted two others – Syrian nationals Mustafa Y. and Sherif D., and a Syrian-Turkish man, Mustafa D. – and asked Taha for $50,000 (1.07 million Turkish lira) to undergo a full transplant operation.
According to a report by the Demiroren News Agency (DHA), kidney donor S. Sidhu was due to receive $12,000 after the surgery.
During the investigation, it was also discovered that Mustafa D., who applied for the procedure, is an employee of the hospital and works in the international patient department.
Following an illegal organ transplant scheme that involved the issuance of false documents, the organizers Mustafa Y., Sherif D., Mustafa D., organ donor S. Sidi, organ recipient S. Taha, his alleged spouse E. Abdallaq, and their friend, Mohammed Omar A., another Palestinian national, were detained.
The organizers of the plot were arrested and produced before the court after a preliminary hearing, but recipient S. Taha, donor S. Sidi and the recipient’s friend Muhammad Omar A. were released on bail.
