Police in Jakarta are investigating the illegal trade of human organs, involving police and immigration officers who were accused of helping traffickers send 122 Indonesians to a hospital in Cambodia to sell their kidneys.
A dozen people have been arrested, said Jakarta police director for general crimes Hengki Haryadi, adding that all 122 victims, including factory workers, teachers and executives, had returned to Indonesia, and police were still searching for a number of other victims whose testimony would be required by investigators.
“Most of them lost their jobs during the pandemic and agreed to sell their organs because they needed money,” he said. Six of them were still under doctors’ observation.
Nine of the alleged syndicate members were former organ trade victims who were accused of using social media to lure people from across Indonesia into having their kidneys removed in Cambodia, reports The Age.
A tenth suspect was accused of sending them to Preah Ket Mealea Hospital in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, for kidney transplant surgery.
Haryadi said the turnover of the illegal trade in human organs since 2019 by the group had totalled about $2.4m: each victim was promised $13 275.
The suspects were charged with violating Indonesia’s human trafficking law and face a maximum 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $59 000.
The WHO first prohibited payments for organs in 1987 and many countries subsequently codified the prohibition into their national laws. WHO estimated in 2008 that 5% of all transplants performed worldwide were illegal: living donor kidneys is the most commonly reported form of organ trade.
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