A court in eastern China on Friday sentenced 16 people to five years imprisonment in illegal kidney transplant racket case. Many of the accused are medical professionals, while professional details of other accused are still yet to be ascertained.

The Lixia district court in Jinan city said in its verdict that most of the accused resorted to the Internet to spot kidney sellers across the country and later conducted several tests to match the kidneys of sellers and buyers.

Like Us on Facebook

The accused charged nearly $57,000 (400,000 Yuan) from each patient, the court added.    

Of the 16 accused, two are reportedly surgeons, one anesthetist, one nurse, and one assistant doctor. Most of them are residents of Jining city in Shandong.

The trail in the kidney transplant case started in November 2014, with case lasting for almost year and half.

It is not clear whether the 16 convicted people will challenge Lixia court's verdict in the higher court.

Owing to lack of donors, the black marketing of Kidney and other organs over the years has seen a huge surge in China.

The Chinese government started storing kidneys and other of convicted prisoners to overcome the shortage problem. However, this practice was discontinued in 2015 following widespread international condemnation.

The government has been able to achieve minor success in registering new legal donors. But this apparently is not enough to meet the overwhelming demands of patients across the country.

Many blame China's poor donor rates for low supply of legal kidneys and other organs in the market. According to a study, China's donor rates stand at 0.6 donations per million people compared with 37 per million in Spain.    

TagsKidney, china, Kidney Transplant Case, China Kidney