A lawsuit was filed in the Ramle Magistrate Court against Prof. Yehuda Hiss, Israel’s former chief pathologist at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute. The NIS 400,000 lawsuit alleges that Hiss his body parts which as a result were not interred with a niftar, doing so without permission from any state body or the family of a deceased. The plaintiff is represented by attorney Tomer Bahar.

Bahar explains at times, police may have requested tissue sample for testing or other investigation-related actions but in some cases, a year after burial families were shocked to receive a notice from the forensic facilty that organs or body parts remain in the institute and they want to bury them. The exact nature of what is meant by “body parts” is not detailed in the report nor does it say what was done in the forensic center with the ‘body parts’.

One case cited pertains to a soldier who R”L took his own life early in his military career back in 2009. Parents sued the Ministry of Health and Hiss for damages for mental anguish after learning body parts were taken from the young soldier without the permission of the family. The parents were awarded NIS 1.5 million. In 2013 the brother of noted TV personality Dudu Topaz sued Hiss alleging he took Dudu’s heart, which he was keeping in jarred. He was awarded NIS 300,000.

In 2012 Hiss was removed from his position by Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman amid many more similar allegations against him.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)