Surgeons arrested in Ukraine for selling transplant organs

Donors were recruited and paid up to $10,000 for their kidneys and other organs

Ukraine's interior ministry says four surgeons and four others have been arrested for taking part in a scheme to recruit organ donors from former Soviet countries and transplant the organs into wealthy foreigners.

The head of the ministry's department on human trafficking, Yuriy Kucher, says the scheme was headed by an Israeli who was arrested last month.

Kucher said yesterday that they sought mostly kidneys from people in Ukraine and other countries. Most of those who sold their organs for up to $10,000 (£6,300) were impoverished young women.

Surgeries were performed in Kiev, Azerbaijan and Ecuador, Kucher said. The surgeries cost up to $200,000 apiece.Those arrested have been charged with human trafficking and face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.