Millionaire Lebanese politician on trial in Spain for ORGAN HARVESTING: Ex-mayor, 69, ‘tried to buy liver from poor illegal migrants for transplant’
A former mayor of El Kharayeb is on trial in Valencia for organ trafficking
The five defendants reportedly tried to buy a liver from illegal immigrants in Spain
But a volunteer working with undocumented immigrants filed a police report
An Algerian woman was excluded as a candidate because she was pregnant
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A Lebanese politician, a millionaire, is on trial in Spain for organ trafficking after allegedly trying to buy a liver from poor illegal immigrants.
Hatem Akouche and four other defendants appeared in court in Valencia for trying to buy part of a liver for a transplant.
The 69-year-old – who has an incurable liver disease – is said to have asked vulnerable people for part of their liver in exchange for money and work.
Akouche – former mayor of the Lebanese city of El Kharayeb – reportedly did this through two of his cousins, who ran a marble company in Novelda, Alicante province, Valencia region.
But the men were caught when an NGO volunteer working with undocumented immigrants heard of an Algerian woman who had been approached by them.
The 28-year-old woman had undergone testing in preparation for the organ donation, but was ultimately ruled out as a candidate because she was pregnant at the time.
The case is the first time potential trafficking in human organs has been discovered in Spain.
Lebanese billionaire Hatem Akouche and four other defendants appeared in court in Valencia for trying to buy part of a liver for a transplant from poor illegal immigrants in Spain
Police in Valencia opened an investigation and found that at least seven others had gone to clinics to undergo the same tests as the Algerian woman.
They found that every potential candidate had been accompanied by the same relative of Akouche during their visits.
Each person was “particularly vulnerable, both because of their origins and because of their economic hardship,” the prosecutor said.
The men’s plan backfired when staff at a hospital in Barcelona became suspicious of a homeless Romanian man who would donate part of his liver there.
But all the misery could have been prevented. After consulting with doctors a second time, Akouche’s son found he was compatible with his father and agreed to the donation.
Akouche was eventually given part of his son’s liver on August 26, 2013, but was arrested five months later in the VIP lounge of Valencia airport.
At the time, the politician claimed not to know that buying vital organs from living people was prohibited under Spanish law.
He faced a court in Valencia in 2019, which ended with an agreement between the prosecution and the accused.
The Lebanese millionaire and his relatives did not dispute the court’s version and he accepted a year in prison while his relatives accepted two years.
He faced a court in Valencia in 2019, which ended with an agreement between the prosecution and the accused. But the group is now back on trial after the Supreme Court overturned the outcome and ordered a new trial
But the group is now back on trial after the Supreme Court overturned the outcome of that trial and ordered a new trial.
The court ordered the new process to recognize the National Transplantation Organization, an independent body within the Spanish Ministry of Health, as an injured party.
The prosecutor, who represents the Spanish Ministry of Health, is now leading the prosecution.
The others now in court are the former mayor’s son, the two cousins and another Lebanese citizen.
They are accused of promoting, favoring or facilitating the illegal transplantation of human organs from others.
The prosecution is demanding three years in prison for Akouche and seven for the other four defendants.