European envoy proposed as witness in Kosovo organ case

(PRISTINA) - An EU prosecutor at a trial into alleged illegal organ trafficking in Kosovo on Friday proposed calling as a witness the author of a damning report on the subject.

The proposed witness, Dick Marty, was the Council of Europe's rapporteur on alleged organ trafficking during the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

His report alleged that senior commanders of the rebel Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army, including incumbent Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, were involved in organised crime and organ trafficking during and after the war.

The report set out claims that organs were taken from prisoners, many of them Serbs, held by the KLA in Albania in the late 1990s. Both Kosovo and Albania denied the accusations and rejected the report.

An EU dominated panel is now trying seven people in the so-called Medicus case, named after the Pristina clinic where the crimes allegedly took place.

According to the indictment, the clinic carried out at least 30 illegal kidney removals and transplants, using donors from poor Eastern European and Central Asian countries, who were promised about 15,000 euros ($19,837) each.

Special EU prosecutor Jonathan Ratel on Friday asked that Marty testify before the court, saying: "I have every reason to believe that he retains in his possession the evidence relevant for this case."

Ratel read from Marty's report, adopted by Council in Europe in 2011, in which the author said he had found "credible, convergent indications" that the wartime organ trafficking "is closely related to the contemporary case".

Defence lawyers for the seven suspects -- including former Kosovo health secretary Ilir Rrecaj and Lutfi Dervishi, a prominent Pristina urologist -- objected to the request to call Marty..

"This is a criminal court, and it will be transformed in a political court if he comes here as a witness," said defence lawyer Ismet Shufta.

Presiding judge Arkadiusz Sedek from Poland said the court would decide on the motion in coming days.