Seven imprisoned in C China kidney trading case

A surgeon and six others were sent to prison Thursday after being convicted for their involvement in the case of a teenager selling his kidney for an iPhone and an iPad.

Seven out of nine defendants were sentenced for intentional injury and two others, though guilty, were exempt from criminal punishment for their minor roles in the crime, according to the verdict.

The People's Court of Beihu District in Chenzhou City of central China's Hunan Province sentenced He Wei, who organized the illegal kidney trade in April 2011, to five years imprisonment.

Song Zhongyu, the surgeon who conducted the transplant, was sentenced to three years with a reprieve of five years.

Wang, a 17-year-old high school student from Anhui Province, agreed to sell one of his kidneys after the teenager met the gang through an online chatroom.

The kidney was transplanted to someone in Chenzhou on April 28, 2011. Wang was given 22,000 yuan (around 3,500 U.S. dollars) and bought an iPhone and an iPad with the money.

He later confessed to his mother when suffering from renal failure after the surgery.

He Wei earned 56,360 yuan and Song was given 52,000 yuan in the trade. The other seven defendants all received a share in the deal.

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.

None of them checked Wang's age before or during the operation, it said.

The court added that the nine defendants have paid compensation worth more than 1.47 million yuan to Wang. The compensation and forgiveness from the teenager and his family led to the court's leniency in sentencing.