First-ever organ-trafficking sentence in Spain confirmed

SPAIN'S Supreme Court has ratified the first-ever custodial sentence for human organ-trafficking ever awarded in the country – three members of the same family in the Barcelona area have been jailed for six years each.

They are said to have offered €6,000 to a Moroccan beggar living in Barcelona without a residence permit for one of his kidneys, since one of the accused parties needed a transplant.

Barcelona Provincial Court sentenced the three, but they appealed, and the highest contentious court in the land has upheld the initial verdict.

A judge said Spain's own public transplant system was 'designed according to the basic principles' of donations being 'altruistic', 'free of charge', 'humanitarian' and 'objective'.

Organ-trafficking has only been considered a crime in Spain since 2010, as it had not been heard of before, or at least, had never been known to have happened in the country.

Its introduction into the Penal Code was intended to 'protect human health and physical integrity' primarily, but also 'personal dignity' by eliminating the temptation for those in dire financial straits to agree to donate their organs just to be able to survive, the Supreme Court said.

According to the case file, a man named Toni Radosavljevic was waiting for a kidney transplant after a string of dialysis sessions and had been referred to Barcelona's Bellvitge Hospital.

As he was not registered on the public health system and did not have a SIP, or medical, card, he pretended to be his brother Django – who was indeed registered – whenever he went to his doctor.

The brothers, with the help of their father, enlisted their friend, Oussama El-Khalifi's assistance, in finding a donor.

He located a Moroccan migrant who lived in a homeless shelter in L'Hospitalet de l'Infant in Tarragona, was barely able to speak Spanish and survived by begging on the street.

The four of them agreed the Moroccan victim would accompany the family to the doctor's, pretending to be a close friend who had volunteered to donate a kidney to help the accused patient.

He turned out to be compatible and, in accordance with standard procedure, went with the family to a notary to sign a consent form and a declaration that he was a friend of Toni's and wished to donate his organ freely to help him.

But the would-be donor panicked at the last minute and refused to sign.

Later, Toni's father, brother Django and El-Khalifi went to the victim's shelter, insulted him and beat him up.

Django, his father and El-Khalifi have each been sentenced to six years in jail and Toni to four-and-a-half years.

The judge rejected the family's plea of 'necessity', saying the public health system was able and willing to meet his need for a transplant irrespective of whether he was registered – and, in fact, Toni was given a new kidney shortly after the incident.