A Japanese newspaper reveals a scheme for illegal organ transplants involving Bulgaria.



In April 2021, two Japanese people received a kidney transplant in a hospital in Bulgaria, writes The Yomiuri Shimbun, quoted by Darik.



Their operations were arranged by a 58-year-old Turkish man who was arrested in Ukraine on charges of illegal organ trafficking.

The transplants in our country have been successful, but the man stopped mediating after the Bulgarian authorities began an investigation on suspicion of illegal transplants from living donors, carried out in the country in 2019 - 2021, the Japanese publication also claims.

A liver stored for three days is transplanted into a person for the first time



The scheme in Japan began to unravel after the newspaper obtained recordings of the Turk in question offering transplants in Sri Lanka.

He was connected to an NGO that sought his help after the coronavirus prevented Japanese people in need of new organs from being operated on in China.

The Turk offered transplants in other countries as well, including Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The said NGO denies any links with a Turk and the illegal trafficking of organs and transplants.

The investigation does not mention the name of the hospital in Bulgaria where the Japanese were transplanted, nor which city it is in question.

an investigation

illegal Japanese transplants