Police re-arrest man for criminal breach of trust instead
KUCHING: The case of a man claiming to be an international human organ trader took a new twist today when Sarawak Police Commissioner Datuk Aidi Ismail announced that the claim is untrue.
A Bernama report said instead, the 48-year-old suspect, who had been remanded since Aug 14 for investigation into the allegation made to British tabloid The Sun recently, has been re-arrested upon the expiry of his remand today for criminal breach of trust into an unrelated case.
“Detailed investigations over the past 12 days found that the man’s claim to have been involved in international human organs trade to be false,” Aidi said in a statement.
He said that none of the testimonies that the investigating team obtained pointed towards the suspect’s involvement in the trade as claimed in The Sun’s Aug 8 news report.
“Investigations also found that the suspect had made false claims during his interview with the journalist from The Sun. Police also contacted the reporter from The Sun, who gave his full cooperation,” he said.
The man was exposed by an investigative report from The Sun (a British newspaper), of his involvement in an international human organs trade.
The suspect had boasted to undercover reporters at a hotel here that he had masterminded 45 illegal kidney sales, and had over 100 potential kidney sellers around the world.
He claimed they were sourced through his Facebook page. Reporters from The Sun had posed as kidney buyers during the expose.
On Aug 8, a reporter pretended to be a kidney buyer for a relative and met with the suspect in a hotel here.
Captured on video, the suspect said he had been selling organs since 2010. He said his fees included bribes for a clinic in Manila, Philippines to perform the operations.
The suspect initially charged a fee of £55,000 (RM301,500) for supplying the kidney, and an additional £65,000 (RM356,300) for payment to the clinic.
He then offered the journalist a kidney with an organ transplant package worth £85,000 (RM466,440), specially for British citizens.
He also confirmed links with the international organ trade.
The Sun’s report also claimed that global transplant tourism is a one-billion-pound industry.
On the suspect’s re-arrest at about 11am today, Aidi said it was in connection with a 2013 case where the suspect, who was then working for the Sarawak Insolvency Department, had allegedly issued several of the department’s payment vouchers worth a total of RM249,101.25 to individuals who were not related to the department.
“An investigation paper on criminal breach of trust was sent to the state Deputy Public Prosecutor on Monday (Aug 24) and a decision has been made to charge the suspect under Section 409 of the Penal Code (Criminal breach of trust by public servant or agent),” he said.
Aidi said the suspect would be charged tomorrow and faces a penalty of between two years and 20 years imprisonment, caning and a fine upon conviction.
