Kosovo Organ-Trafficking Suspect Arrested

EULEX prosecutor Jonathan Ratel

The EU's police mission in Kosovo says a suspect in a human-organ-trafficking scandal that came to light in 2008 has been arrested in Israel.

The EULEX mission said Moshe Harel was arrested in connection with a parallel investigation in Israel.

Kosovo police accuse Harel of luring kidney donors to Kosovo from Turkey and the poorer countries of the former Soviet Union with the promise of $20,000 in payment.

The organs were then sold on for between $100,000-125,000.

Kosovo media reports quoted EULEX prosecutor Jonathan Ratel as saying the mission would seek Harel's extradition.

Attention over the trafficking allegations has grown since Council of Europe envoy Dick Marty in 2010 accused Kosovo Albanian guerrilla fighters of harvesting organs from captives, mainly Serbs, during the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

Based on reporting by Reuters and the BBC