akhhorus
10-20-2004, 03:26 PM
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/20/world/main650408.shtml
Poland's Cash-For-Corpses Scandal
WARSAW, Poland, Oct. 20, 2004
(AP)*** ****Prosecutors widened murder charges Wednesday in a cash-for-corpses scandal that has shocked Poland, accusing ambulance crew members of killing five people and getting payments from funeral homes after tipping them off about the deaths.
A 35-year-old suspect is accused of killing four patients with injections of a muscle relaxant and informing undertakers of the deaths in exchange for a total of least 21,300 zlotys ($6,200/euro5,000), prosecutors in the central city of Lodz said.
The man, identified only as Andrzej N., previously was suspected only of two such killings.
In indictments filed Wednesday, a new, 37-year-old suspect, identified as Karol B., was charged with a similar killing, judicial spokeswoman Malgorzata Glapska-Dudkiewicz said.
Both are charged with murder for motives "deserving special condemnation," which carries a penalty of between 12 years and life in prison, she said. The deaths happened in 2000 and 2001.
Further expanding the investigation, two Lodz doctors were charged with negligently causing the deaths of 14 patients by failing to aid them properly, the spokeswoman said. They could face up 10 years in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors have said they are analyzing thousands of patient deaths in Lodz in recent years. The investigation is continuing, Glapska-Dudkiewicz said.
Police in Lodz launched an investigation in 2002 into suspicions that ambulance staff were taking bribes from funeral parlors in exchange for early tip-offs about deaths.
It grabbed national attention after Polish media aired allegations that some crews may have delayed ambulance arrivals or administered drugs that resulted in the death of severely ill patients.
Investigations of suspected bribery by ambulance staff are under way in about a dozen other cities, but have produced no indictments so far.
State first-aid officials have acknowledged the system is prone to corruption. They blame low pay for government-employed medical workers and a lack of laws regulating intense competition among funeral homes for state-paid funerals.
Poland's Cash-For-Corpses Scandal
WARSAW, Poland, Oct. 20, 2004
(AP)*** ****Prosecutors widened murder charges Wednesday in a cash-for-corpses scandal that has shocked Poland, accusing ambulance crew members of killing five people and getting payments from funeral homes after tipping them off about the deaths.
A 35-year-old suspect is accused of killing four patients with injections of a muscle relaxant and informing undertakers of the deaths in exchange for a total of least 21,300 zlotys ($6,200/euro5,000), prosecutors in the central city of Lodz said.
The man, identified only as Andrzej N., previously was suspected only of two such killings.
In indictments filed Wednesday, a new, 37-year-old suspect, identified as Karol B., was charged with a similar killing, judicial spokeswoman Malgorzata Glapska-Dudkiewicz said.
Both are charged with murder for motives "deserving special condemnation," which carries a penalty of between 12 years and life in prison, she said. The deaths happened in 2000 and 2001.
Further expanding the investigation, two Lodz doctors were charged with negligently causing the deaths of 14 patients by failing to aid them properly, the spokeswoman said. They could face up 10 years in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors have said they are analyzing thousands of patient deaths in Lodz in recent years. The investigation is continuing, Glapska-Dudkiewicz said.
Police in Lodz launched an investigation in 2002 into suspicions that ambulance staff were taking bribes from funeral parlors in exchange for early tip-offs about deaths.
It grabbed national attention after Polish media aired allegations that some crews may have delayed ambulance arrivals or administered drugs that resulted in the death of severely ill patients.
Investigations of suspected bribery by ambulance staff are under way in about a dozen other cities, but have produced no indictments so far.
State first-aid officials have acknowledged the system is prone to corruption. They blame low pay for government-employed medical workers and a lack of laws regulating intense competition among funeral homes for state-paid funerals.