Doctor accused of organ trafficking posed as cousin of donor, UK court told

Obinna Obeta and three other people are on trial at the Old Bailey accused of organ trafficking under the Modern Slavery Act. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

A doctor accused of organ trafficking was previously able to persuade an NHS hospital and the transplant regulator that he was the cousin of a man who donated him a kidney in an operation in 2021, the Old Bailey has heard.

After this was successful, he trafficked a Lagos street trader to the UK in an attempt to transplant his kidney to the daughter of a powerful Nigerian politician at the same hospital, the Royal Free in London.