Azerbaijani Prosecutor General's Office: No one detained due to case of illegal transplants

The information spread by media about several individuals having been arrested is wrong, Eldar Sultanov, the spokesman for Azerbaijani Prosecutor General's Office, told Trend.

Sultanov said that the public was misinformed about the criminal case against the officials of the Azerbaijani International University's Medical Center. A joint police group including the staff of Azerbaijani Prosecutor General's Office and the Interior Ministry investigated the crime.

Together with Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General's Office and the Interior Ministry launched operational and investigative activities into the criminal case filed by the Ukrainian Interior Ministry.

According to the report, Azerbaijan conducted the investigation after Ukrainian law enforcement agencies sent an appeal to Baku. The appeal stated that a group of Ukrainian citizens organized illegal kidney transplants at the Azerbaijan International University's Medical Center in 2009. The appeal stated that the kidney were taken from foreign citizens and transplanted by Ukrainian doctors.

The activities revealed that the Medical Center's management violated Azerbaijani law on human organ and tissue transplants. The investigation revealed that the individuals invited donors from Ukraine to Azerbaijan without having the proper licenses to transplant organs. They then carried out operations to transplant kidneys to foreign nationals. Ten such operations were carried out. The individuals received large funds for each operation.


/Trend/