Dr. Yusuf Sonmez, the first accused in the case of organ trafficking in the case of Pristina clinic “Medicus”, was at the airport in Tirana in 1999, where he participated in the transport of human organs from Albania to Western Europe. This is part of the testimony of cooperative witness, given to the Serbian Prosecutor’s office, which was presented to international prosecutors Clint Williamson and Jonathan Ratel.
With this statement cooperative witness directly linked Sonmez between surgeries in an improvised hospital in the “Yellow house” in 1999 and transplants at Pristina clinic “Medicus,” which happened almost ten years later.
Criminal proceedings on the events in “Medicus” shall be independent of the investigation into allegations on harvesting the organs of the kidnapped Serbs in the “Yellow house”, in Albania. Nevertheless, the Serbian Prosecutor’s Office believes that events are part of the same operation, and that a vital link is exactly Sonmez. However, he was never charged for a crime in the “Yellow house” and it is even questionable whether the EULEX prosecutor Jonathan Ratel will accept the testimony of the cooperating witness of the Serbian Prosecution.
“Yellow House” is under investigation of a special prosecutor Clint Williamson, while the investigation of organ trafficking and illegal transplants at the hospital, “Medicus” is led by Ratel. The same cooperating witness, who knows Sonmez, helped in locating a doctor who is called Dr. Frankenstein, in Amsterdam.
This evidence confirmed the allegations of Carla del Ponte, the former Hague prosecutor from her book “The Hunt – Me and War Criminals” and claims of the former Special Rapporteur of the Council of Europe, Dick Marty that human organs were illegally traded during the war in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999, and that the same criminal organization continued to deal with it later in Pristina.
“Yellow House”, where now lives the family Katuci, is located near Burrel in northern Albania. The house is now white, and the family denies that it was ever a place where the organs of the prisoners were extracted. Empty bottles of infusion fluid, muscle relaxant, bandages and needles were found near the house. In January 2005, ICTY launched an investigation into the organ trafficking, based on the items that were found in the house.
According to the investigation conducted by the Serbian War Crimes Prosecution, surgical procedures were conducted in Health Centres or hospitals, which during the conflict were used for the treatment of KLA soldiers. For that purpose, was used part of the hospital in the military centre “Bajram Curri”, health centre in the factory “Coca-Cola” in Tirana, a neuropsychiatric hospital in a prison number 320 in Burrel and the so-called “yellow house”. In addition to these locations, the Serbian prosecutor’s office has information that there was a prison in the mine Deva, in the border area between Kosovo and Albania.
In March 2011, EULEX initiated proceedings for trafficking in human organs in Kosovo and Metohija. Indictments were filed against Yusuf Sonmez and Lutfi Dervisi.
