The Criminal Court of the Second Judicial Circuit scheduled the trial of four doctors from the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) and an employer of Greek origin for allegedly contacting poor people to illegally extract their organs.
This was confirmed by the Public Ministry, which presented the accusation against the doctors at the end of 2015.
The trial will be between September and November 2017.
Among the accused is the head of nephrology at the Hospital Calderón Guardia (HCG), named Mora Palma.
In addition, three other surgeons named Mauro Stamati, Fonseca Guzmán and Monge Monge, and a foreign merchant named Katsigiannis Karkasi are also involved in the investigation.
The Public Ministry detected 14 people as victims, all of them with low resources, who in exchange for a sum (about 2 million colones) agreed to sell their organs to foreign citizens, apparently from Israel.
The suspects were released under strict precautionary measures.
The investigation has being carried out for almost four years.
Mora Palma was arrested on July 18th, 2013. But after four months in pre-trial arrest, he was released under precautionary measures, which included the payment of a bond of 100 million colones.
The other defendants were arrested on October 10th, 2013 on the outskirts of the Calderón Guardia.