<\/span><\/p>\n But in the context of Turkey\u2019s role in supporting and arming the terrorists to overthrow the Assad government in Syria and its history with trafficking human organs, there\u2019s reason enough to take the report seriously.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The Turkish public health sector has a history of operating in international human organ smuggling for money. In 2010 The Guardian <\/strong><\/span>reported<\/strong><\/span><\/a> the theft of human organs by Yusuf Ercin Sonmez, a Turkish surgeon who was sought by Interpol in an international manhunt at the time. Sonmez has been indicted for illegally taking human organs for sale from patients in Kosovo and accused of the same in Azerbaijian and of being involved in an organ theft ring in Ecuador. In Kosovo, Sonmez was indicted for taking organs from Serb soldiers, captured in the 1998-1999 US war on Serbia and leaving them to die. Linked to Hashim <\/strong><\/span>Thaci<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, the US-backed Prime Minister of Kosovo, Sonmez had been repeatedly arrested for these crimes in Turkey but later released. According to The Guardian:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Yilman Altun, 23, was the desperate young Turk who said he was promised a rich reward for his organ by a broker in Istanbul. Alongside him lay Bezalel Shafran, a 74-year-old Israeli who had paid \u00a376,400 for the black-market kidney he hoped would prolong his life\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAccording to an indictment released this week, the surgeon transferring the kidney between these strangers in the Medicus clinic in a deprived suburb near the Kosovan capital, Pristina, was Yusuf Ercin Sonmez, a 53-year-old medic\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut it is Sonmez who prosecutors believe has been the central figure in the trafficking. The Turk has been repeatedly arrested for organ transplants in his native country, where colleagues describe him as an accomplished but rebellious surgeon. In 1998, Turkish TV, whose reporters posed as donors, found seven patients, mostly from Israel. Sonmez was later banned from working in Turkey\u2019s public health sector\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSince then he has been linked to clinics operating on donors and recipients from across the world. He has admitted to doing thousands of transplants, but says that his donors sign disclaimer forms declaring they are giving their organs for humanitarian purposes\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPatients from Canada, Germany, Poland and Israel had received organ transplants at the clinic. But despite promises of payment of up to \u20ac20,000 ($33,000), the donors had left empty-handed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n If the reports cited below sound confusing, perhaps some of the original publishers meant them to be so.\u00a0 Many of the news stories in western media tell only parts of the story, omit key elements or simply do not followup on the arrests. But when the reports by various news agencies are examined closely and integrated certain things become clear. For one, when the corporate media reports that a person has been \u201carrested\u201d it doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that he has been prosecuted or imprisoned or even detained.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Yusef Sonmez was working with Moshe Harel, an Israeli, at the time of his \u201csurgical attacks\u201d in Medicus, a medical clinic owned by Lutfi Dervishiin in Kosovo where Sonmez and other doctors worked. Sonmez was the primary surgeon and Moshe Harel was known as \u201cthe fixer\u201d for the organ theft&sell ring, recruiting or finding \u2018donors\u2019 and recipients for organ removal and transplant by Sonmez and a few other surgeons working for them.<\/span><\/p>\n Yusuf Sonmez and Moshe Harel. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n In 2008, Moshe Harel was arrested in <\/strong><\/span>Pristina<\/strong><\/span><\/a> but fled Kosovo \u201cafter he was released from detention.\u201d Subsequently, Kosovo authorities issued an international arrest warrant for both, Sonmez and Harel which stated that at least 30 illegal kidney removals and transplants were carried out in the Pristina clinic in 2008. The police raided Medicus that year \u201cafter a Turkish man collapsed at Pristina airport waiting for a flight back to Istanbul after having a kidney removed.\u201d Haaret<\/strong><\/span>z<\/strong><\/span><\/a> later reported,<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn 2008 investigators closed down the private health clinic where the doctors worked as part of the initial investigation. Kosovo police launched a raid triggered by suspicions that a Turkish man had sold his kidney to an Israeli recipient after he appeared fatigued at Pristina airport trying to board a flight to Turkey.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n In November 12, 2010 Haaret<\/span><\/strong><\/span>z<\/strong><\/span><\/a> followed an AP report stating that Interpol had issued an arrest warrant for Harel and Sonmez adding, \u201cTwo other doctors, Israeli national Zaki Shapira and Turkish national Kenan Demirkol are identified in the 46-page document as unindicted co-conspirators.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n On December 20, 2010 Haaretz <\/span><\/strong><\/span>reported<\/strong><\/span><\/a> <\/strong><\/span>that Moshe Harel was \u201con the run\u201d and:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMoshe Harel, an Israeli of Turkish descent, is known as \u201cthe fixer\u201d of the alleged organ ring, for his suspected role in matching potential donors recruited in Turkey with recipients, many if not all of whom had connections with Israel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n On January 12, 2011 Yusef Sonmez appeared again in Turkey. The BBC <\/strong><\/span>reported<\/strong><\/span><\/a> that Somnez was \u201carrested and bailed,\u201d (i.e. released on bail by Turkish authorities in Istanbul) adding \u201cThe [organ] donors, said to have come from Moldova, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkey and to have lived in \u2018extreme poverty or acute financial distress\u2019, were allegedly transported to Pristina Airport.\u201d It\u2019s noteworthy that the BBC said 8 others were charged a year earlier but made no mention of Moshe Harel in their report.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n CNN also reported that Yusef Sonmez was arreste<\/strong><\/span>d<\/strong><\/span><\/a> in Istanbul on January 12, 2011 on the Interpol warrant but that \u201cSonmez was then released by the court pending trial.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n On February 10, 2011 the New York<\/strong><\/span> Times<\/strong><\/span><\/a> ran an article in defense of Sonmez (excerpts):<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n ISTANBUL \u2014 For a surgeon wanted by Interpol and suspected of harvesting human organs for an international black-market trafficking ring, Dr. Yusuf Sonmez was remarkably relaxed as he sipped Turkish red wine in a bustling kebab restaurant facing the wind-whipped Sea of Marmara.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDr. Sonmez, refreshed from a ski trip to Austria, spoke last month while on a break from business trips to Israel and operations on cancer patients here.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe boasts about the results of his kidney transplant operations, more than 2,400 by his count. He keeps friends (and, incidentally, investigators) up to date on his life via a blog and Web site.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnd in his seaside villa on the Asian side of Istanbul, he treasures a framed copy of a signed letter in 2003 from the Ministry of Health in Israel commending him for his life-saving aid to \u201chundreds of Israeli patients who are suffering from kidney diseases and awaiting transplants\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOf his surgical skills, he added, wryly, \u201cI am the best in the world as long as my fingers aren\u2019t broken.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n On May 25, 2012 <\/strong><\/span>Reuters <\/strong><\/span>reported<\/strong><\/span><\/a> that Moshe Harel was finally arrested in Israel on the Interpol warrant.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHarel is a key suspect in a separate, but parallel, investigation regarding the Medicus indictment, filed in June 2011, charging him with the criminal offences of trafficking in persons and organized crime,\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Reuters said the indictment stated Harel is, \u201cAn Israeli citizen [involved] in \u2018identifying, recruiting and transporting victims \u2026 ensuring the delivery of cash payments by electronic bank transfer\u201d prior to surgery.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPolice in Kosovo accuse Israeli Harel of seeking out people in need of kidney transplants and luring donors to Kosovo from Turkey and the poorer countries of the former Soviet Union with the promise of 15,000 euros ($20,000) in payment. It is not known whether they received the money. The organs were then sold on for between 80,000 and 100,000 euros ($100,000-$125,000)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n On the same day, AFP <\/strong><\/span>reported<\/strong><\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Also on May 25, 2012 Press<\/strong><\/span> TV<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, reported on the story of Somnez & Harel and discussed broader findings of organ trafficking in Israel:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPristina \u2013 The suspected mastermind behind an organ trafficking network, sought for years by Kosovo authorities, has been arrested in Israel an EU prosecutor said on Thursday. \u2018We have received information that Moshe Harel has been arrested in Israel on organ trafficking and other related offences,\u2019 EU special prosecutor Jonathan Ratel said. \u2018We are seeking confirmation with the Israeli authorities,\u2019 he added.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cReports earlier this week by Ha\u2019aretz, indicate that at least 10 Israeli citizens were arrested for being members of an organ trafficking gang. The Italian New Generation Foundation for Human Rights and the Everyone Group has presented evidence indicating that Sinai locals harvest the organs of the people they transfer to Israel. In this connection, a number of mass graves have been found containing the corpses of Africans missing some of their organs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The trial in Kosovo took place in April, 2013, 5 years after the organ trafficking crimes were committed in Kosovo. Jonathan Ratel is a Canadian lawyer who serves as head of the European Union\u2019s Special Prosecution Office in Kosovo. He began his investigation in March 2010 and the trial began in September 2011 before three international judges. Ratel pieced together the complex case covering countries that ran through Kosovo, Turkey, Europe, Canada, US and Israel. The trial included testimony from 80 witnesses and Ratel\u2019s closing arguments included 250 PowerPoint slides and lasted six-and-a-half hours.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n On April 19, 2013 The <\/strong><\/span>Star<\/strong><\/span><\/a> <\/strong><\/span>(Canada) conducted a telephone interview with Ratel when he called this dark web of trafficking human organs, \u201cthe cruel harvest of the poor\u201d and added, \u201cThe single motivating factor behind this enterprise was the opportunity for obscene profits available in the black market organ trade.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n On April 29, 2013 the New York <\/strong><\/span>Times<\/strong><\/span><\/a> published this:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFive people were convicted Monday in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, in connection with an elaborate organ-trafficking network that lured poor people to the country to sell their kidneys and other organs to wealthy transplant recipients from Israel, the United States, Canada and Germany. Organs sold for as much as $130,000 each. \u201cThe defendants, all Kosovars, were tried before a panel of two European Union judges and one Kosovar judge. A special prosecutor for the union, Jonathan Ratel, called the case a landmark because doctors had been convicted. \u201cDr. Lutfi Dervishi, a urologist and the director of the clinic at the center of the trafficking ring, was sentenced to eight years in prison. His son Arban Dervishi was sentenced to seven years and three months, and Dr. Sokol Hajdini, the clinic\u2019s chief anesthesiologist, to three years. Two other defendants received one-year suspended sentences. \u201cMr. Ratel said the Dervishis were aided by Dr. Yusuf Sonmez, whom he called a notorious international organ trafficker. Dr. Sonmez is a fugitive and may be in South Africa, Mr. Ratel said.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n On April 29, 2013, The<\/strong><\/span> Star<\/strong><\/span><\/a> <\/strong><\/span>stated that Dr. Yusuf Sonmez and Moshe Harel, \u201cremain at large, wanted under an Interpol \u2018Red Notice\u2019.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n On August 10, 2013, Friends of <\/strong><\/span>Kosovo<\/strong><\/span><\/a> <\/strong><\/span>reported, \u201cTwo foreign suspects in the case \u2013 Turkish doctor Yusuf Sonmez and Moshe Harel, an Israeli citizen \u2013 are still listed as wanted by Interpol but remain at large.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n December 16, 2013 \u2013 According to Balkan Transitional <\/strong><\/span>Justice<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, defendants Sonmez and Harel cannot be tried in their absence and their prosecution depends on their extradition:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\nArrested and Released<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/yusuf_sonmez_moshe_harel371-300x220.jpg\" "\\"Yusuf")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Moshe_Harel_arrested_in_Israel_5-25-2012_211x187.jpg\" "\\"Moshe_Harel_arrested_in_Israel_5-25-2012_211x187\\""){kind=spacer}
<\/a>\u201cMoshe Harel was arrested along with several other people in connection with a parallel investigation in Israel, said the mission, known as EULEX.<\/span><\/p>\nThe Trial<\/strong><\/h2>\n
On the Lam<\/strong><\/h2>\n