Police to be authorized to exhume bodies for autopsies

Parliament’s National Security Services Committee has passed the Police Bill, including a revision to authorize the police to exhume bodies for autopsies.

A provision of the Police Bill, reviewed by the Security Services Committee, states that the police shall have the authority to conduct exhumation autopsies under a court warrant for the purposes of ongoing investigations.

“The police will have the authority, under a court warrant, to exhume the body of a deceased or part or parts of the body of a deceased visible if it was found important to exhume the body for analysis or autopsy,” reads the provision in question.

The police will also have the authority to exhume bodies or parts of the bodies of deceased foreign nationals, with the approval of relevant state institutions, in order to transport the bodies to their home countries.

The Police Bill establishes standards that must be met when conducting exhumations, including digging the grave alone, religious requirements, health requirements, limiting the number of people present during exhumations to only those necessary, and informing the family of the deceased.

Security Services Committee has passed and submitted the Police Bill to the parliament floor for consideration.

The additional provisions which will allow for the police to conduct exhumation autopsies comes at the heels of a recent amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code to allow the police to conduct autopsies without the consent of the family of the deceased for investigations.