Posted on 10/31/2003 12:18:16 PM PST by 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
Thank God muslims are afraid of parachuting in the dark.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
You need to check your facts. Clinton did not say he wanted to have sex with a mummy, he said sex with Hillary was like having sex with a mummy, complete with being wrapped up. He did not want to have sex with Hillary or a mummy because it was one in the same.
I stand corrected. :)
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