9 on trial in China over teenager's sale of kidney for iPad and iPhone

(CNN) -- Nine people went on trial in southern China over allegations they helped a teenager to sell one of his kidneys so he could buy an iPhone and an iPad, a court in Hunan Province said Friday.

Prosecutors said in court Thursday that the nine people "should be held criminally liable for intentional injury," the court in the province's Beihu District said in a statement Friday.

The 17-year-old high school student from Anhui Province -- who was referred to only buy his surname, Wang -- suffered renal failure after the kidney was removed in April 2011, according Xinhua.

The defendants included a man named He Wei, who was described the authorities as "penniless and frustrated over gambling debts."

He was "seeking financial gain via the illegal kidney trade" and recruited others to help him look for donors in Internet chat rooms and set up the operation, the prosecutors said.