Rings involving funeral homes and police officers, who—in collusion with relatives—bribe doctors to issue false death certificates for people they have never even seen, are denounced to Alpha by licensed funeral homes.
“They tell them: ‘Why bother with an autopsy? Let me take care of it for you.’ They go to a doctor with 100–200 euros, and the doctor issues a death certificate. After all, there’s a joke going around in England: ‘Want to kill your husband? Go to Cyprus.’”
Solonas Melas – Spokesperson for Licensed Funeral Homes
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
A complaint is pending with the Authority for the Investigation of Allegations and Complaints against the Police against a police officer, who referred the daughter of a deceased person in Larnaca to a specific funeral home.
“We told her that a death certificate couldn’t be issued because no doctor in Cyprus had ever examined him. Do you know what the police officer did? He sent an email to his daughter and told her to contact a specific funeral home,”
Solonas Melas
In the wake of the case involving the missing remains of a British citizen from the Nicosia morgue, new allegations have come to light regarding the irregular transport of the deceased by private individuals, with the police’s tacit approval.
“It’s a mess. I mean, if someone gets a van tomorrow, they’re entitled to transport bodies for the police.”
Solonas Melas
“The bids were evaluated and contracts were awarded in each district for the procurement of these specific services.”
Marina Christodoulidou – Police
The chaos surrounding the morgues at public hospitals shows no sign of ending. As it turned out, the body of the British man who disappeared from the Nicosia morgue had been transported from Paphos with incorrect identification details, since there is no one at Paphos General Hospital responsible for recording the bodies, and this task has been taken over by a funeral home.
“We must both provide and find solutions. We need to examine these issues carefully. We do not want such incidents to happen again.”
Dimitris Konstantinou – Press Officer for the Ministry of Health
The problem is expected to be resolved following the decision by the ministers of Health and Justice to reopen the morgues in Limassol and Paphos.
Watch the report by Christoforos Nestoros:
