Novosibirsk Prosecutor's Office slams body-case verdict

The Novosibirsk prosecutor's office is demanding that a court verdict, which exonerated those guilty of illegally sending human bodies to Germany, be rescinded. This was disclosed to RIA NOVOSTI here today by state prosecutor Vitaly Ognev.

According to Ognev, a prosecutor-office representative has appealed a verdict by the Kirov district court of Novosibirsk at the Novosibirsk regional court. The afore-said Kirov district court exonerated Vladimir Novoselov, director of the regional forensic-medicine bureau, who was charged with illegally sending human bodies to Germany.

The court ruled that the prosecutor had submitted insufficient evidence confirming Novoselov's guilt, exonerating him some time later.

In his appeal, the prosecutor-office representative is asking the superior court to rescind this verdict and to have this case re-examined by other judges.

Five relatives of deceased persons, whose bodies were taken to Germany, and which haven't yet been returned home for burial, also signed a document, which demands that Novoselov's verdict be rescinded. These people used to search for their near and dear, with officials at the Novosibirsk regional forensic-medicine bureau telling them that the bodies had allegedly been cremated and handing out funeral urns. Meanwhile investigators claim that the bodies were being readied for shipment to Germany.

These and other bodies were delivered to German scientist Gunther von Hagens, who heads the private plastination institute in Heidelberg, and who is known as an avant-garde artist, who uses human bodies in his shocking anatomical exhibitions. Von Hagens was even nicknamed Dr. Death for using dismembered human bodies during his exhibitions.