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A TRIAL OF four doctors and a Greek pizzeria owner accused of running an illegal organ trafficking ring in Costa Rica for wealthy foreigners began today in the capital San Jose.
The five allegedly sought out poor people willing to sell their kidneys for between $6,000 (€5,000) and $20,000 (€16,700), mostly to Israelis but also to European clients willing to pay as much as $100,000 (€83,000) each.
Surgeries to remove the organs were allegedly carried out in some of the many private clinics in Costa Rica that each year attract thousands of foreigners for cheap medical tourism.
The trial is expected to run through 30 November, with a bench of three judges deciding the verdict.
According to the prosecution, the ring was led by doctor Francisco Jose Mora Palma, head of the nephrology unit dealing with kidney diseases at the public Calderon Guardia Hospital in San Jose.
The other three doctors accused are urologists Fabian Fonseca Guzman and Massimiliano Anunzia Mauro Stamati, and peripheral vascular specialist Victor Hugo Monge.
The Greek man, Dimosthenis Katsigiannis Karkasi, was accused of operating from his pizzeria near the hospital to find potential organ “donors” with financial problems and linking them up with the doctors in exchange for money.
The alleged ring was busted in 2013 with the arrests of the five men, who were suspected of having illegally carried out 14 kidney transplants.
Prosecutors were to call on 25 witnesses to substantiate their case – including a former policewoman who was said to have worked with the ring after selling her own kidney, and who accepted to give evidence against the five accused.
If convicted, the doctors and Katsigiannis Karkasi risk prison for the traffic of persons.
For the pizzeria owner, that could be six to 10 years behind bars. For the doctors, because the charges involve abusing their professional status to commit a crime, the sentences could be eight to 16 years.
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Kodi boxes you say? I’ll have a look,
thanks Journal!
@Linda: you don’t need one. A phone, laptop, PC or tablet will suffice. You can even get 1080 pocket projector with kodi installed.
@Government Sachs: or stick kodi/iptv on your smart TV
@Philip Mckenna: you don’t need to buy anything is my point.
I bought one and promptly cancelled my cable subscription. They’re fantastic!
@Martin Flood: thanks Martin, I’ll drop by this evening to watch the Kel Brook fight. Then I’ll grass you up on Monday.
@Martin Flood: In the US they call that ‘cutting the cord’
Lads if ye ruin Kodi for me I won’t be responsible for my actions.
Kodi is perfectly legal . No such thing as a kodi box ,it’s an android box that runs kodi ,that in turn has streaming apps loaded on to the kodi platform to give access to premium content.
Will never be able to stop free streaming sites and if Sky would stop ripping Customer off would be no need to access these sites
@Ivan Enoughofit: I think the illegal side was f things is the fact they are ‘Pre Loaded’ with illegal content sharing. Nothing illegal about buying a Raspberry Pi, Nothing illegal about installing Kodi, nothing illegal about using a proxy. What’s illegal is using the sites that deliver the content, and if a device is being sold with this already to go and enabled, that’s illegal.
@Daniel: well that kind of a silly thing to say. Your internet is sold with this already to go and enabled
@Daniel: i think there is a loophole that allows you to stream content but not download as that is illegal
@permo dermo no that loophole was recently closed in a court ruling
@Permo Dermo: The EU recently made it illegal to stream as well.
@Celtic_Horizon: but not to receive streams
The journal, adverts, done deal are all owned by the same company.
Quick search on adverts for Kodi – http://www.adverts.ie/for-sale/q_kodi/
Quick search on Done Deal – https://www.donedeal.ie/all?words=kodi&area=Ireland&campaign=14
Hello Pot, this is the kettle, you’re black…
Kodi boxes ? There is no such a thing. These are Android boxes. Kodi is an app which can be installed on your phone and even on tv running Android. Are you suggesting those should be banned as well? Check your facts before you write something Rob.
@Remington: I think they are suggesting pre-loaded devices are to be banned. Devices that have the software such as Exodus already installed. That would be illegal.
@Daniel: I get your point but one the other hand your laptop comes preloaded with web browser which allows you to download illegal content. Also as far as I am aware streaming content is not illegal as you are not saving any data on your device. What’s illegal is providing the stream.
Didn’t even know you could buy stuff on Facebook…. hmm.. did I just get suckered by some stealthy advertising….
Okay, calling a media player (and that’s what Jodi is) a piracy enabling device is dumb. Should we all delete Windows Media Player from our Windows computers or ban Plex. If you have a problem with streaming services, go after the streaming services, not a media player.
Kodi has shut down.
@ray.farrelly: how can open source software ‘shut down’? What does this statement mean?
@ray.farrelly: What do you mean ‘Kodi has Shutdown’? I just downloaded it?
I read it on google.
@ray.farrelly: link
@ray.farrelly: what are you on about. Not only it is available on Google play to download but I am watching it as I am typing it.
@Remington: the Internet is now shut down.
SKY deserve what they get. Robbing people to give footballers and their creepy agents millions while ordinary people are living on the streets. Kodi cannot be shut down without closing the internet.
Trust the journal to get it arseways.
Why not mention that these wicked boxes are on sale on Donedeal and Adverts ?
Looks very strange that you picked Facebook marketplace!
Thanks for the free advertising
I see we all became legal experts overnight.
Kodi is not the problem it is people trying to make money by selling so called fully loaded boxes. You just have to look online to see that people are been ripped off when they buy these so called fully loaded boxes. This is not Kodi’s fault they do not supply fully loaded boxes and the software that they do supply is not fully loaded, they don’t supply plugin’s to watch pirate content. You can download Kodi and use it on many devices and operating systems. Kodi is not the problem.
Very surprising comments, some downright brash.
I have complete package from you know who, all sports/movies/usual channels for €113 per month (includes free telephone + rewindable tv)
I can sleep easy at night anyway lads.
@Wurley Burgoh: If you are fool enough and have the money. The people using streaming sleep easy to.It not illegal.
i have a sony android tv in which sony makes kodi available as an app for the tv, seems that sony have no problem with streaming films etc in fact they facilitate it!
“The boxes are often tweaked to give customers access to pirate TV ”
anybody know how i can get this channel? :-)
The Internet enables piracy.
have your say