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posted by janrinok on Thursday September 29 2016, @09:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the "I-ain't-got-nobody" dept.

The New York Times reports that a Moroccan woman who took a piece of her dead husband's intestine on a flight to their home in Austria was carrying the sample because she suspected that he had been poisoned and she wanted European doctors to examine it.

The woman packed the four-inch piece in her checked baggage on a flight to the southern Austrian city of Graz, where she and her husband had been living for eight years. She acted on the advice of a doctor in Marrakesh who shared her suspicion that her husband had been poisoned at a meal the couple ate while visiting his relatives. The woman was travelling through Graz airport in the south of Austria but was reportedly stopped by officials after they observed her behaving suspiciously.

Officers determined that the woman had violated no Austrian laws by bringing the sample into the country. A Moroccan doctor extracted the piece of intestine and apparently helped pack it in formaldehyde and in thick plastic containers. Gerald Höfler, who leads the pathology institute in Graz where the intestine is being examined, described the packaging as very professional. "I would imagine that it was done by a pathologist," Höfler said. "It was absolutely secure, triple wrapped, according to European Union norms."


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  • (Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday September 29 2016, @10:08PM

    by edIII (791) on Thursday September 29 2016, @10:08PM (#408133)

    Not so sure. It was odd to say the least, and the article didn't indicate she had any paperwork to that effect either.

    So think of it from the custom officers point of view. Lady behaving strangely and you find pieces of intestine in her luggage. She admits its human, her dead husband's, and she is here to get it tested for poison.

    Um, yeah, you call for backup. Just so that there is somebody else there with you as witness for one, and then they summoned a doctor. The doctor thought it was strange because for a full autopsy, and to accurately determine poisoning, you need the whole body.

    They still let her go. If anyone are the assholes here it is the writers of that article with the title containing the word entrails. Entrails kinda of implies to me there were more than just sample sizes, and doesn't imply professional packaging. They could have stated medical samples and it would've been far more accurate.

    Sounds like the truth is that she spent a little while explaining it, but wasn't handcuffed or anything. I think that's pretty reasonable because ladies traveling around with their husband's intestines are pretty damn rare and weird.

    I'm on the inclusiveness and equality bandwagon too, but dude.... a few questions in this case are reasonable. Remember, the owner of those intestines is dead. We want to ask questions about body parts of dead people being transported :)

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @10:31PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @10:31PM (#408141)

    Lesson learned: before carrying anything unusual on an international flight, retain lawyers in both countries.

    • (Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday September 29 2016, @11:47PM

      by edIII (791) on Thursday September 29 2016, @11:47PM (#408170)

      There's unusual, and then there is human intestines.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @10:31PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @10:31PM (#408142)

    I guess the Moroccan doctor had already come to the conclusion that the lady's husband was poisoned, and provided a sample that would let Austrian doctors get first hand confirmation, rather than having his report translated, authenticated and questioned.

    But otherwise, a non-story. How "suspicious" did she act?

  • (Score: 3, Touché) by bob_super on Thursday September 29 2016, @11:12PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Thursday September 29 2016, @11:12PM (#408160)

    > but wasn't handcuffed or anything

    Well, it is a European country. After a few hundred years of getting it wrong, they realized they should talk to Africans for a while before putting them in chains.