Police in the East Java capital of Surabaya have arrested four brothers after they snatched their deceased mother’s body, who reportedly died of COVID-19, from a hospital in the city.
They have not been formally detained, however, with East Java Police spokesman Turnoyudo Wisnu Andiko explaining that their detainment was suspended due to their exposure to a COVID-19-positive patient, which placed them on a list of persons at risk of being infected.
The four suspects, identified by their initials MB, MK, MA, and MI, are between 22 and 28 years old, and were children of a recently deceased woman, who reportedly tested positive for the coronavirus. Police said the suspects resisted arrest and were charged with violating the Health Quarantine Law and the Disease Outbreak Law, among others, which could see them serve at least five years in prison.
A one-minute video of the brothers carrying their mother’s body using a hospital bed outside Karang Tembok Hospital has been making the rounds on social media this week. The mother reportedly passed away on June 4, and the body snatching incident occurred on the same day.
Diah Retno, the hospital’s director, said the patient, who was 48 at the time of death, tested positive for the coronavirus and had arrived in a state of severe shortness of breath. She also said that the brothers claimed that their mother was not infected with the coronavirus and refused to bury her according to COVID-19 protocol.
The suspects reportedly snatched the patient’s body when they were permitted to see her for the last time in an isolation room, with Diah suspecting that the pick-up had already been planned. During this time, security officers and nurses were reportedly threatened and assaulted.
While the family insisted on burying the patient at a local cemetery in the Pegirian sub-district, they were eventually persuaded to bury her in Keputih cemetery, which is the designated burial site for COVID-19 patients in Surabaya.
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