Russia's Supreme Court has upheld the not guilty verdict of four doctors, accused of illegal transplanting human organs. They were accused of planning to extract a patient's kidneys while he was still alive.
A Moscow city court had given a not guilty verdict twice and each time the decision was appealed by the prosecutors. Now the case finally seems to be settled.The director of the Moscow Transplantology Research Institute, Valery Shumakov, said the lengthy court procedure resulted in the death of many patients who had no other alternative to transplantation, as the number of donor organs decreased catastrophically, after the scandal started.