Six Croatian citizens and one Serbian national were arrested Friday for falsifying Croatian passports thought to have been used by high-profile criminals.

The seven individuals are charged with abuse of power, falsification of documents, and organizing to commit a crime, Zeljka Pokupec, the spokeswoman of the Croatian Bureau for Combating Corruption and Organized Crime (USKOK) told the press.

Between 2006 and the end of 2010, the group made a profit of approximately US$559,675 through the illegal sale of passports. The authorities seized 53 falsified passports, and believe that at least as many are already in use.

The Croatian police told Al Jazeera that a falsified Croatian passport costs on average €10,000 (US$13,328). 

A member of Bulgaria’s infamous kidnapping gang known as “The Impudent” was gunned down Saturday evening in front of his apartment building in Sofia. Kiril “Shkafa” Kirilov, 38, was among the first to be arrested in December 2009, when the Bulgarian authorities cracked down on an organized crime group believed to be responsible for 11 high profile kidnappings between 2008 and 2009.

It is unclear who shot Kirilov, although he informed his attorney Yolina Staneva that he was being followed by a black SUV for some time. Staneva told the FOCUS News Agency today that her client had nothing to do with the kidnappings, and had no intention of testifying against the members of the Impudent group. She criticized the prosecution for releasing Kirilev from prison, where he would have been safer. Kirilov was imprisoned in Vratsa, Bulgaria, for armed robbery and assault. He was released in 2011.

A Canadian man testified Friday that he paid €80,000 (US$105,000) to an Israeli national in exchange for a kidney transplant in a Kosovo clinic implicated in an international organ trafficking scandal.  According to the prosecution, his testimony helped “crystallize” the operations of organized criminals operating in Kosovo, Moldova, Ukraine, Turkey, Russia and Israel.

Toronto resident Raul Fain, 66, said he sought a kidney in Kosovo after being told he could wait up to 12 years for an organ transplant in his home country.  Organ removal and transplant is illegal in Kosovo.

Via video link, Fain was shown photographs of the Medicus clinic, where he confirmed he was taken for his June 2008 surgery.

Russia’s most corrupt institutions are its traffic police, kindergartens and universities, according to a new Kremlin report on corruption.

Over half of the population surveyed who interacted with traffic police said that they had been asked for a bribe, according to the report, prepared by a working group on transparency.

Results in education were similar: 51 percent of respondents who had interactions with kindergartens said a bribe had been asked of them, while 46 percent of respondents said university officials sought bribes.

Spanish police believe that remains they recently uncovered in a Madrid river may belong to former Zemun Clan gangster Milan Jurisic.

Jurisic has been in hiding since the 2003 assassination of former Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.  He was sentenced in absentia with several other gang members to 30 years’ jail time.

“I expect that as the investigation of the Spanish police continues, the possible murder of Jurisic will also be solved, which would put an end to the Zemun Clan and the mystery of whether any of them are still alive,” Serbian Minister of Interior Ivica Dacic said in Belgrade today.

Croatia’s first trial against a political party will begin April 16, the country’s state court announced Wednesday.  Prosecutors allege that the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and its president, former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, skimmed $12 million in public money for the party’s slush fund using a company called “Fimi media.”

Current HDZ president Jadranka Kosor, who served as prime minister from Sanader’s sudden resignation in 2009 until the December elections is expected to testify.

According to prosecutors, HDZ overpaid the public relations firm “Fimi media” for marketing contracts for state companies such as Croatia’s electricity provider, Hrvatska Elektropriveda (HEP), siphoning some of the money directly into an HDZ slush fund.

As campaigns in Serbia’s May elections heat up, the country’s anti-corruption agency will monitor campaign expenditures for the first time.

The state’s anti-corruption arm has hired independent observers to collect and analyze parties’ expenses, it announced yesterday.

The most recent country to gain European Union candidate status dispatched 165 observers on March 14.

Bulgaria’s new bill on confiscation of illegally obtained assets may result in a partial amnesty, Germany's Ambassador to Bulgaria Matthias Hoepfner told Capital Daily on Monday. The revised bill is now under criticism for being too limited in scope. 

"The new bill should not cover too short a time span or exclude from the outset important areas. Otherwise it will only grant partial amnesty," Hoepfner said. He explained the importance of a reliable system of economic regulations and judiciary transparency for Bulgaria’s prosperity and interest from the foreign investors. 

Ukraine’s parliament deepened allegations against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko when they voted on Tuesday that her 2009 negotiations on gas imports from Russia constitute treason.

Tymoshenko, the country’s opposition leader, has been serving a seven year prison sentence since October after she was found guilty of abusing her office in the 2009 gas deal with Russia.

American and European politicians have condemned the sentence as unfair and politically motivated.

Polish authorities arrested eight people Sunday for questioning on counterfeiting charges, the authorities announced.

The Central European individuals had US$100 million worth of fake American Treasury Bonds, said the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau.