// gazeta.uz
The court of the Yakkasaray district established that the group members organized more than 30 illegal liver and kidney transplant operations. The sentences for the convicted ranged from suspended sentences to 10 years of imprisonment.
According to law enforcement agencies, 12 individuals living in Tashkent and other regions such as Fergana, Bukhara, and Kashkadarya were detained in September. It was found that they used social networks to find patients with organ diseases and also persuaded healthy individuals to sell their organs for significant sums.
The suspects used their connections outside the country to forge documents, presenting donors as relatives of the patients. The operations were conducted in a private clinic in a neighboring country. Many donors did not receive the promised monetary rewards in full, and the profits were distributed among the group members. Additionally, patients were sold powerful painkillers at inflated prices, even in cases where their condition did not improve.
The organizer of the group was found guilty of several articles of the Criminal Code, including organ trafficking and document forgery, and received a 9-year prison sentence in a general regime colony. The other participants received various types of punishments, including imprisonment for up to 10 years, community service, restrictions on freedom, and suspended sentences.
Since May 2022, Uzbekistan has had a law on organ and tissue transplantation, which allows such procedures only in state medical institutions. In June of the same year, criminal liability for crimes in the field of transplantation was introduced.
