Cairo: Egypt has intensified a clampdown on illegal trafficking in human organs after uncovering what authorities described as the biggest ring for trading in body parts in the country.
A court in the Delta province of Tanta on Wednesday sentenced six people to life in prison on charges of illegally removing a kidney from a jobless man, legal sources said.
The ruling was issued by the Tanta Criminal Court in the first session of the trial, the sources added.
The court also ordered the convicts to pay 500,000 Egyptian pounds (Dh104,000) each.
The verdict is subject to appeal.
The case dates back to 2014 when a 19-year-old man in obvious pain was found abandoned on the street.
Investigations revealed that the man had been lured by one defendant with a promise of getting a job. The victim had then been anesthesised and one of his kidneys illegally removed from him. The gang gave the man 12,000 Egyptian pounds in compensation for his kidney, that had been sold to a customer suffering from renal failure.
The six confessed to having lured unemployed youngsters and harvestingd their organs without their knowledge for trade.
Wednesday’s ruling came as Egypt’s chief prosecutor ordered 25 other people, accused of running a separate organ trafficking network, be jailed for 15 days pending further questioning.
They included eight professors at medical schools and two surgeons, legal sources aid. The rest are nurses, medical lab specialists and brokers.
There were three other suspects staying in a hospital where they had undergone organ transplants under deals with the ring. Two suspects are Yemeni nationals and the third is a Saudi, the sources added.
The Health Ministry said that it had closed 10 medical facilities linked to the ring.
The Administrative Oversight Agency (AOA), which busted the alleged network, accused the suspects of exploiting poor Egyptians who sold their organs at low prices.
The organs were resold for hefty sums of money.
Investigations showed that the suspects bought the organ for 100,000 Egyptian pounds on average and sold it to wealthy patients for $100,000.
The AOA, a state anticorruption body, said millions of dollars and local pounds had been found in possession of the suspects, believed to have been raked in from the unlawful business.
Egypt is believed to be among the world’s top destinations in illegal organ trade. The country is also a hub for illegal migrants, some of whom had reportedly been killed by smugglers for their organs.