A 41-year-old Indonesian man said he sold his kidney to an organ trafficking in 2019 in order to pay off his debts.
He claimed that his kidney was bought by someone from Singapore.
The man, named Hamin, told Indonesian media detiknews that he later joined a kidney selling syndicate in Cambodia as a coordinator and facilitated the selling of kidneys to other buyers.
He was caught and jailed on Saturday.
Saw postings on Facebook calling for kidney donors
Hanim said that he chanced upon posts on Facebook that said that kidney donors were needed.
Strapped for cash, he messaged these accounts and was told to approach a broker in Bogor regency, in West Java.
The broker took him to a hospital in Jakarta, where the the kidney donation process was meant to take place.
It was a condition that a donor needed to obtain permission from their family in order to donate a kidney. However, Hanim's wife did not agree to the process, and he had to call off the transplant.
Other donors involved
A year later, in July 2019, he flew to Phnom Penh in Cambodia with two other Indonesians. The three men all intended to donate their kidneys.
During the medical checkup, Hanim and one Indonesian was declared fit for the procedure, while the other one failed.
He then met the buyer, who he said was from Singapore. He mentioned that the other Indonesian donor's buyer was also Indonesian.
The next day, the operation was carried out, and he was given 10 days to recover from the operation, before returning to Indonesia, where he rested for another one to two months.
Hanim said that he was paid 120 million Indonesian Rupiah (S$10,632) for the kidney.
Became a broker himself
Hanim later became a broker himself, bringing two people to Cambodia to donate their kidneys.
He revealed the details of his operations to the police.
He said that as a broker, he would look through Facebook groups such as the Indonesian Kidney Donor Forum and Foreign Kidney Donors.
Selling organs is illegal in Indonesia, but people are allowed to donate them to friends and relatives. Donors looking for cash are forced to look online to find buyers outside the country.
Brokers will find an individual wanting to sell their kidney on the Facebook group, and directly message them. They were instructed not to comment on their posts.
Hanim said that he was unfamiliar with the procedure of matching donors to buyers, and had no role in dispatching buyers from Indonesia to Cambodia. Instead, his role was only to manage buyers in Cambodia.
Regretted being involved
Hanim said that he regretted being involved in the syndicate, and added that he had wanted to quit the trade since 2019.
He hoped that people won't turn to the trade out of desperation, and mentioned that there were other, better jobs out there.
"it's better not to be like this," he told the Indonesian media.
12 suspects, including an immigration officer arrested
Earlier in July, the Indonesian police busted the syndicate. 12 suspects were arrested, including a policeman and an immigration officer.
The syndicated had facilitated kidney transplants to 122 donors.
The police officer was not a member of the syndicate, but he helped members of the syndicate to cover up their tracks. He was arrested for the obstruction of justice.
The immigration officer was allegedly paid up to 3.5 million rupiah (S$309) for every donor he helped to clear immigration at the Bali airport.
The Indonesian police said that they were still hunting for other perpetrators.
Top photo via YouTube/Tribun Timur