South African hospital chain charged in organ trafficking case

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

South African hospital chain charged in organ trafficking case
Published On Thu Sep 16 2010
Donna Bryson
Associated Press

JOHANNESBURG—A major South African hospital chain and its chief executive have been charged after years of investigation into a human organ trafficking case that stretched from Israel to South Africa to Brazil, hospital officials and police said Thursday.

Police spokesman Vish Naidoo said 11 suspects were ordered to appear in court in November. He refused to name them, but the board of directors of the Netcare hospital chain said in a statement that the parent company, its chief executive officer, Dr. Richard Friedland, and its subsidiary in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal received subpoenas on Wednesday.

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"The board fully supports Dr Friedland and expresses its regret that the prosecuting authorities have seen fit to press charges against him and Netcare, particularly in view of the unqualified co-operation which Netcare and Dr. Friedland have given to the investigating and prosecuting authorities to assist in those investigations," said Netcare, which operates hospitals across South Africa, among them some of the continent's most respected facilities.

The case first became known in 2003. That year and the next, arrests were made in Brazil and South Africa. Investigators said Brazilians who passed a medical checkup were flown to South Africa, where their kidneys were extracted for transplants into Israeli patients. Eastern Europeans were also donors.


Read more: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/862132--south-african-hospital-chain-charged-in-organ-trafficking-case?bn=1