EULEX Chief in Albania Ahead of Organ Probe

Xavier De Marnhac | Photo courtesy of EULEX

“As you know we have formed a team which will probe Marty’s allegations and the case prosecutor will soon visit Tirana,” said De Marnhac in a press conference with Albania’s Foreign Minister Edmond Haxhinstato.

“It in the interest of the whole region that this investigation produces [a] clear result,” he added.

US Prosecutor John Clint Williamson was appointed in August as the lead prosecutor for an investigation into allegations of organ trafficking by the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA.
 
Williamson will serve as the lead prosecutor in a seven-member task force headquartered in Brussels and operating under the jurisdiction of EULEX.

Dick Marty, the human rights rapporteur at the Council of Europe, released a report in December 2010 that linked former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters, including Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, to organised crime and accused them of harvesting the organs of Serb prisoners and others in Albania.

Both Kosovo and Albanian authorities have denied the allegations made in Marty's report and have agreed to participate in an international investigation into the claims.