Newsroom
A representative of licensed funeral homes in Cyprus has alleged that some funeral businesses arrange death certificates without medical examinations, potentially allowing relatives to access assets or transfer property after a person's death.
Solonas Melas, speaking on Alpha TV's Alpha Enimerosi, claimed that certain funeral homes offer to arrange death certificates through doctors who have not examined the deceased. According to his account, the service can cost between €100 and €200, without a post-mortem examination.
Melas said a written complaint had been submitted to the police over the alleged practice. He also described cases in which families had approached funeral businesses, including his own, seeking certificates for deceased relatives. He said he had refused to help and advised them against obtaining documents through such means.
In one case, a family initially reacted angrily to his refusal but later followed his advice. Melas said the family discovered two months later that the deceased father had an insurance policy worth €180,000.
He also raised concerns about the possible misuse of powers of attorney. Such authorisations cease to be valid when the person who granted them dies. Melas alleged that incorrectly recording a death as having occurred a day later could give someone holding a power of attorney extra time to transfer assets into their own name.
Complaint over police officer's email in Larnaca
Melas recounted a separate case involving a deceased man in Larnaca whose daughter was living in England.
He said the family had been informed that a death certificate could not be issued because no doctor in Cyprus had examined the man, meaning a post-mortem examination was required.
According to Melas, a police officer subsequently emailed the daughter from an official police account and recommended that she contact a particular funeral home, which could arrange for a doctor to issue the certificate.
Melas alleged that the officer had made the recommendation to avoid dealing with the matter personally. He said the daughter forwarded the email to him, prompting a written complaint to the relevant complaints committee.
An investigating officer later visited in connection with the complaint, but Melas said he had not been informed of the outcome.
The allegations raise questions about the procedures used to certify deaths and the safeguards intended to prevent the misuse of official documents. The account provided by Melas does not establish whether criminal wrongdoing occurred or whether disciplinary action was taken in the Larnaca case.
