Albanian family sues Dick Marty on organ trafficking claims

TIRANA, March 30 – An Albanian family on Wednesday sued a Council of Europe investigator on allegations that during the 1999 Kosovo war their house served as a medical clinic where Serb captives were killed and their organs sold.
Swiss senator Dick Marty said in his report in December that Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, the former head of the Kosovo fighters, was behind a network dealing in kidneys and other human organs in at least two places in Albania.
Thaci has denied wrongdoing and has supported an international inquiry.
The organ trafficking claims, first made public in a 2008 book by former U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte, resurfaced three years after since Kosovo declared its sovereignty, with strong backing from the U.S. and most countries in the European Union.
Serbia has called on the U.N. Security Council to authorize an international investigation.
The European Union mission, known as EULEX, has launched a preliminary investigation into Marty’s allegations.
So far, both the U.N. and EULEX have maintained that their investigations into the alleged organ harvesting have failed to yield any evidence.
The Brama family who lives in Gurre village, Fushe Kruje district, 18 miles (30 kilometers) north of capital Tirana, has sued Marty of defamation and will ask for a reparation of 200,000 ($281,800), lawyer Roland Islami said.
Islami said that two EULEX officials had made a contact with the family asking them to leave the house to them for checking.
The family in Gurre village is the second in Albania after the report mentioned another one in the village of Rripe, also in northern Albania, where it was said the organ harvesting took place.
Albania also has said it is open to an international investigation. conference on Western Balkans regional growth