Egyptian Busted for Trying to Sell Mummy

Associated Press | Friday, October 31, 2003

[JohnHuang2]

Egyptian Busted for Trying to Sell Mummy

.c The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - A senior Egyptian official and six other government employees have been arrested for trying to sell a mummy to an undercover officer, police said Friday.

The seven, all employed at the Agriculture Ministry, were arrested Thursday while negotiating with an officer posing as an antiquities dealer. They are believed to have excavated the mummy recently in an illegal dig in Beni Suef, 60 miles south of Cairo, and had hidden it in a government-owned truck, police said.

Most sales of Egyptian antiquities are illegal under a 1983 Egyptian law declaring all antiquities not in private collections to be public property.

Police said the mummy dated to Egypt's Greco-Roman period, was less than six feet tall and in a good condition. It has been handed over to government archaeologists.

The suspects were expected to be charged with antiquities smuggling, which carries of maximum sentence of five years. Egyptian antiquities officials are pressing for the maximum sentence for smuggling to be increased from five to 25 years.

It was the third smuggling case this year in Egypt allegedly involving government officials. One previous case involved a senior official charged with safeguarding Egyptian antiquities. Another involved the former top antiquities official in Luxor - home to several Pharaonic temples and the tombs of the Valley of the Kings. Both those cases are expected to come to trial later this year.

10/31/03 15:09 EST

[JohnHuang2]

Friday, October 31, 2003

Quote of the Day by Steven W.

[HEY4QDEMS]

Now that's no way to treat your mummy!

[JohnHuang2]

lol!

[quark]

"They'd sell their own mummy if they thought there was a buck in it." < rimshot>

[JohnHuang2]

heh!

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

[::pointing towards bandaged mummy::] "... well... that about wraps this case up..." :)

[dasboot]

Egyptian Busted for Trying to Sell Mummy

Daddy Also Named as Suspect

budump, pishhhhh.

[JesseHousman]

More proof that muslims are evil. Here we have a camel tender selling his mummy like a common 'ho.

[JohnHuang2]

lol -- good one

[dasboot]

"They'd sell their own mummy if they thought there was a buck in it." < rimshot>

Shecky? 'zat you? You're beautiful, baby. Miss you in Reno.

[warchild9]

People are getting arrested...respect for the past has come a long way since mummies were used instead of coal in locomotive furnaces.

[Calpernia]

[JohnHuang2]

lol

[gov_bean_ counter]

And to think I wore rags so you could live this way...

[dasboot]

Forgot obligatory, creative onomatopoeism.

Please resubmit with reqisite smackedda boom.

[chilepepper]

I thought they usually tryed to sell their "seester".

[dasboot]

Vey Good!

[Xenalyte]

Let me guess . . . he tried to sell it to Bill Clinton.

[PeteFromMontana]

I'm a little tied up to respond to this right now

[doug from upland]

That was my thought. Clinton has always wanted to have sex with a mummy.