Prof. Nathan Levitt. 'Didn't let him drink'
Romanian police outside clinic
Photo: Reuters
Dr. Ganya Ziskind. Shouted at police
Photo: Gil Nehushtan
Daughter of doctor detained in Romania: Police were harsh
Fertility specialist, Dr. Nathan Levitt, accused by Romanian authorities of trafficking in human eggs, is not being allowed out of Romania, and his family is worried. 'My father didn't know how to respond. There was hysteria,' said his daughter, Chen, to Ynet about police raid.
The police raid on the Romanian fertility clinic that ended in the arrest of 30 Israeli doctors
working on the site has caused no small amount of stress for the families of the detained doctors.
"We are very stressed out. Nevertheless, we aren't speaking with him every single minute," said Chen Levitt, daughter of Prof. Nathan Levitt, to Ynet on Tuesday. Levitt is among the Israelis being investigated in Romania for allegedly trafficking in human eggs and is, therefore, not being allowed back to Israel at the current time. His daughter claims that the Israeli medical community has not come to her father's side out of fear.
SABYC clinic in Romania. 'One woman fainted' (Photo: Reuters)
Some 30 Israelis were arrested Monday at a clinic as they were accompanying their Israeli fertility patients through the embryo implantation process. According to the Romanian authorities, the eggs were illegally harvested from poor local woman in exchange for money. The courts extended the remand of clinic owners, Harry and Yair Miron. Prof. Levitt and Dr. Ganya Ziskind are being detained, while the others who were arrested have been released.
Chen spoke with her father Monday night and said that he is currently staying in a hotel in Bucharest and trying to find a lawyer to represent him. According to her, Dr. Ziskind's family is with her in Romania.
'They cursed them and took their money'
Chen recounted the police raid on the Sabyc clinic as her father described it to her. "The treatment of the Romanian police was disgraceful," she said. "My father told us that all of a sudden in the middle of the day, a group of masked men entered the clinic armed with Kalashnikovs.
"My father, who was just in the middle of a medical procedure, didn't know how to respond. Everyone was very alarmed. There was hysteria there. Many people cried, and one woman fainted," Chen said. "Ganya shouted at the Romanian police that no one has held us with our faces to the wall since 1939."
According to her, the Romanian police were tough with the detainees: "They didn't let them drink or eat all day. They were very violent with them. They shoved them and cursed at them, and took all their money."
