KUCHING: Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah has urged the authorities to look into the possibility of human organ trafficking in Sarawak.
He made the appeal following a report and a video published by an international media pertaining to a resident here who boasted of masterminding 45 illicit kidney sales and used Facebook to lure poverty-stricken victims from around the world to sell their organs to desperate patients.
Abdul Karim said the authorities should intervene and investigate the claims.
“If he’s involved in trafficking of human organs, I think actions must be taken against him because that is not ethical at all,” he said when met by reporters on Monday (Aug 10).
However, the minister did not dismiss the possibility of fake news being sensationalised by the international media.
“When I saw the video, I didn’t know whether it was true or not. I mean a Sarawakian involved in the selling of human organs. I can’t really accept it as of yet.
“These videos are sometimes made by somebody trying to seek cheap publicity.
“If it is true, there must be certain laws in the nation that allow the government to take action against such characters,” he said.
Abdul Karim added that there was also a possibility that the man, who claimed to be a middleman for people who wanted to sell their organs for money, was “a little bit cuckoo”.
“In the video, he looked like an ordinary family man and did not look like a businessman doing undercover organ selling,” he said.
“I can’t say that it’s true or not because there are so many false news and cerita dongeng (fairytales) out there and this could be just one of them.
“For me, this is cerita dongeng,” he added.
