9 sentenced for selling kidney in China

Seven people, including a surgeon, were sent to prison in central China Thursday after being convicted for their involvement in the sale of a teenager's kidney. Two other suspects in the case were also found guilty but were not sentenced to jail time, China's official state-run Xinhua news agency reported. He Wei, who was the ringleader in the illegal kidney trade in April 2011, was sentenced by the People's Court of Beihu District in Chenzhou City to five years in prison, and Song Zhongyu, the surgeon who conducted the transplant, was sentenced to three years with a reprieve of five years. Prosecutors said the defendants removed the kidney of a 17-year-old named Wang, who agreed to sell one of his kidneys after the teen met the gang through an online chat room. Wang was given about $3,500 and reportedly bought an iPhone and an iPad with the money. His kidney was transplanted into someone in Chenzhou on April 28, 2011. The teen later confessed to his mother when he began to suffer from renal failure after the surgery. He Wei made about $9,000 off the deal, of which all of the defendants got a cut. Among the nine defendants, five were prosecuted as the main culprits and four others including two nurses, a surgical assistant and an anesthesiologist who assisted in the transplant procedures, were tried as accessories to the crime, the court said.