Turkish doctor detained over Kosovar organ trafficking

A Turkish doctor detained for alleged links to an international organ-trafficking organization based in Kosovo was released Wednesday pending trial, Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Yusuf Erçin Sönmez, who was detained on Tuesday evening in a raid in the Kartal district of Istanbul, denied the allegations.

Sönmez, suspected of carrying out dozens of operations as part of an alleged international organ trafficking network in Kosovo, testified for two hours at the Sultanahmet Courthouse on Wednesday. Prosecutors demanded his arrest on charges of “organized organ-trafficking,” but the court overruled the request and released him.

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Sönmez said he was involved in no crime. “There is no organ-trafficking, hence there is no evidence,” he was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency. “I was here to testify on a probe ongoing in Kosovo. I did not get the subpoena since my address changed, that is why I was detained.”

Sönmez, dubbed the "Turkish Frankenstein" in Kosovo, was apprehended on an Interpol arrest warrant on suspicion of illegal organ transplant operations in Kosovo as well as in Azerbaijan, daily Milliyet reported.

Sönmez, 53, is among at least nine people who were indicted in the case in Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008 and has struggled to shake off organized crime and corruption under international supervision, Associated Press reported.

Interpol issued a bulletin requesting the arrest of Sönmez over the Kosovar case after a district court in the country’s capital, Pristina, charged him with people smuggling and illegal immigration.