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Police foil attempt to sell 1,700-year-old mummy |
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September 18, 2000
AMMAN (AP) - Police have foiled an attempt to illegally sell a nearly 1,700-year-old naturally preserved mummy, officials said on Sunday. The police officials said a force from the northwestern Balqa governorate arranged a sting operation after police were tipped that several people were trying to sell mummies. An officer posing as a potential buyer met the suspects on Wednesday and agreed to pay 30,000 Jordanian dinars (dlrs 42,000) for the body, one of the officials said on customary condition of anonymity. He said when the suspects turned up to make the exchange the same day, police arrested them and later referred them to court, where they will be tried for trading in antiquities - an offense punishable by up to 15 years in jail. The arrest took place at the Palestinian refugee camp of Baqaa, 27 kilometers (17 miles) northwest of the Jordanian capital Amman, the Jordan Times said, quoting Brig. Abdullah Hamadneh, director of the Balqa Metropolitan Police. Neither the paper nor the police officials disclosed the number of those arrested. The body, a male in his 40s, was excavated in caves on the shore of the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth, the police officials said. It had not decomposed because of the high salinity of the soil in the area. |