Patients 'used for organs'

2008-11-13 19:09

Belgrade - Serbian prosecutors say they have evidence that 40 mental patients were taken to Albania from an asylum in Kosovo and that some could have ended up as victims of an organ trafficking ring.

Serbia's war crimes prosecutor spokesperson Bruno Vekaric said the evidence emerged as part of an investigation into the fate of more than 300 Serbs allegedly abducted by ethnic Albanian rebels around the time of the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

Vekaric said on Thursday some of the patients may have been victims in the organ trafficking ring described in a book by former chief UN war crimes prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte.

Albania's top prosecutor refuses to reopen an investigation into the alleged ring.

- AP