Five detained in Tunisia’s Kasserine governorate for organ trafficking

Five people including a Syrian-Turkish national have been arrested for organ trafficking in Tunisia’s impoverished Kasserine province, a judiciary source has told a local media.

Slah Eddine Rachdi, prosecutor and spokesperson for the Kasserine Court of First Instance told Mozaique FM Sunday August 13 that the arrest came following an arrest warrant issued Friday August 11 by the ministry of Justice against the five, among whom one woman and a Syrian-Turkish national, for forming an international organ trafficking network.

The judiciary official indicated that the organs are sold in Turkey and the price can reach up to $10,000.

Kasserine, west-center of the country and near the border with Algeria, is one of Tunisia’s poor governorates. It is often theater of clashes between youth demanding better living conditions and security forces.

Known as the “red market,” the global human organ trade generated between $600 million and $1.2 billion annually before the coronavirus disease pandemic, according to Global Financial Integrity, a Washington-based Think Tank that produces analyses of illegal financial flows.