On Wednesday, the Criminal Court of San José rejected the request to grant house arrest instead of prison for doctor Francisco Mora Palma and the Greek trader Dimóstenes Katsigiannis Karkas, accused in the case of organ trafficking.
According to the press office of the Court, the judges maintained the measure of eight months of preventive custody.
It is worth mentioning that between 2012 and 2013 the Public Prosecutor’s Office detected 14 victims, all of whom had low resources, so they exchange agreed to sell their organs for a sum (from three and 10 million colones) to be received by foreign citizens, apparently Israelis, Americans and Syrians.
The surgeries were performed at Clínica Bíblica and La Católica Hospital. The trial began on September 11th and the court was composed of judges Omar White, Lorena Blanco and Irena Barrantes.
Finally, the San José Criminal Court sentenced José Francisco Mora Palma to 12 years in prison on December 4th. Mora, former head of nephrology at Calderón Guardia Hospital (HCG), was found guilty of the crime of human trafficking for the purpose of illegal removal of organs and embezzlement.
Dimosthenis Katsigiannis was sentenced to eight years in prison, but the three other doctors (Fabián Fonseca Guzmán, Víctor Hugo Monge Monge and Massimiliano Mauro Stamati) were acquitted.