HONG KONG - HONG Kong authorities have arrested 14 people including mortuary workers and funeral agents in a corruption scam in the handling corpses at public hospitals.
In an sting operation dubbed 'Gypsy', mortuary staff are suspected of accepting monthly bribes from funeral parlours in exchange for preferential treatment in handling the funerals.
'The mortuary staff had allowed the funeral agents to collect bodies outside the operating hours of the mortuary,' the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) said in a statement.
It isn't the first time mortuary workers have courted controversy in Hong Kong of late. Negligence by staff at a public hospital mortuary led to the dumping of an infant's corpse in a garbage landfill last month.
Despite an extensive search by authorities after a public outcry, the infant's body wasn't found. -- REUTERS
