The State Prosecutor’s Office of North Macedonia announced today that it has opened a case following media reports about documents from the Jeffrey Epstein case, which claim that samples of human brains from North Macedonia were allegedly transported to the United States for scientific research purposes.
The Prosecutor’s Office said that the case was opened in order to examine all indications of the possible existence of elements of a criminal offense prosecuted ex officio, “bearing in mind the nature of the media allegations relating to the processing, freezing, and international transport of human tissue, as well as possible issues regarding compliance with legal and ethical standards for experiments involving human tissue and samples.”
As stated, the case has been forwarded to the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Corruption, which is tasked with taking measures to collect official information from competent authorities, institutions, and health facilities in order to determine any potential illegal handling of human tissue and biomaterial, omissions, or abuses in the process of obtaining permits and consents.
North Macedonia’s Minister of Health, Azir Aliu, requested that data on the shipment of brain parts to the American university “Columbia” for scientific research be analyzed.
He announced that a working group would analyze whether protocols were followed and emphasized that the Ministry of Health is not responsible for the investigation, given that it concerns a research project that began in 1996.
“I believe there is no need to rush with information about the type of possible abuse, because personally, if you ask me, as an individual, not as a minister and not as the Ministry, I assess that there is a very small possibility of abuse in this case, since this is a research project involving two countries – the other being the United States, which has very clearly defined protocols for biological material,” Aliu said.
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The former director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Skopje stated on Monday, February 2, that 10 to 15 human brains were delivered annually to the U.S. as part of research conducted at Columbia University on suicide and schizophrenia.
Duma emphasized that this was “scientific research conducted in accordance with all international standards, through official channels and with procedures respected for the transport of brains of deceased persons from Macedonia to the U.S.,” and that everything was carried out with the consent of families and the approval of an ethics committee.
According to the latest documents published by the U.S. Department of Justice from the investigation into the late financier and sexual offender and trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, a Macedonian professor at Columbia University mediated the procurement of brains from Macedonia for experiments at several American universities.
Those documents, as reported by media in North Macedonia, state that there were around 1,000 human brains.
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