Tan's mistress also confirmed to the newspaper that his organs were donated although she did not name the recipients.

Mr Tang, 56, had been desperate for a kidney and had been on dialysis.

Last September, he was sentenced to one day in prison and fined after pleading guilty to entering an illegal arrangement to purchase a kidney and to falsely declaring that the would-be donor, an Indonesian, was a distant relative.

The Indonesian donor, Sulaiman Damanik, who came from a poor background, had agreed to sell his kidney for 150 million rupiah. He was also jailed for two weeks and fined last year.

It was the city-state's first organ trading case. The high-profile case prompted the government to say it plans to amend its organ transplant law so that kidney donors can receive financial compensation.

Under existing laws, it is illegal for donors to be given cash in return for giving up a kidney.

- AFP