Council of EU: Human organ trafficking trials outside Kosovo

Council of EU: Human organ trafficking trials outside Kosovo

BRUSSELS -- The Council of the European Union decided on Monday to mandate EULEX to support the judicial proceedings on alleged human organ trafficking in Kosovo in 1999.

The Council of the EU decided to mandate EULEX to support the judicial proceedings relocated from Kosovo that arise from the investigation by the EU Special Investigative Task Force (SITF) into the allegations contained in prosecutor Dick Marty's CoE report on the human organ trafficking in Kosovo and Albania in 1999.

EULEX has the mandate to assist and support Kosovo's authorities in the fields of police, judiciary and customs, and the available budget for financing the mission by June next year amounts to around EUR 56 million, the Council of the EU stated on Monday.

In late 2010, Marty submitted his report to the CoE Parliamentary Assembly, accusing Kosovo Prime Minister Hasim Taci, as a leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), and his close associates of organizing human organ trafficking and killing Serb and ethnic Albanian captives.

SITF Chief Prosecutor Clint Williamson, who mostly confirmed the allegations from Marty's report, stated that the trials would start in the summer of 2015. In the meantime, his term of office came to an end, so the EU will appoint a new prosecutor.