The collaboration between Columbia University and Macedonia, which is mentioned in the Epstein files as an example in which the Macedonian side sent the brains of deceased persons to the US to serve for scientific research purposes, was a project in which the former director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine Aleksej Duma and Dr. Gorazd Rosoklija, a doctor of Macedonian origin who works at Columbia University in New York, participated, several media outlets reported based on archival materials from the Faculty of Medicine.
Former director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine and Criminalistics, Aleksej Duma, confirmed in a statement for the media that it was a project that was implemented between 1990 and 2000.
“There was no question of any profit because the brain cannot go on the black market. A brain cannot be sold and cannot be transplanted. When we accepted, the ethics committee of the Faculty of Medicine also gave its consent. The agreement was to continue according to the rules, without any profit and no one from the outside was involved in all of this. There are precise rules, when the brain is removed, in how many seconds it should reach a temperature of minus 80 degrees and arrive in the laboratory. Our benefit was that we sent many young people (to the USA) to continue their work and gain new knowledge,” said Duma.
Duma, in a statement to DW – Deutsche Welle, indicated that Macedonia was included in that international project by sending 10 to 15 samples.
The former director does not remember whether permission from the families for the intervention was required at that time, or only the consent of the Ethics Committee and a letter of information.
