Prosecutors plan to exhume 2 bodies in rice-wine probe

The bodies of two women who may have died of methanol poisoning were exhumed to help determine whether they succumbed to the effects of deadly bootleg liquor, the Prosecutors' Office of the Ilan District Court in northeastern Taiwan said yesterday.

The order was given after a number of cases of fake rice wine were uncovered around the nation, sickening more than 30 people and killing at least three.

The two women, Lo Yue-yun (羅月雲), 38, and Yen Ya-yun (顏雅雲), 35, complained of illness after drinking liquor on Nov. 1 and Nov. 7, respectively. As both women were healthy before their deaths and both showed signs of methanol poisoning, prosecutors believed that a double-check of their bodies was needed.

Law-enforcement officials met with resistance from relatives of the deceased at first because the relatives were afraid that such a move would disturb the peace of the dead.

They finally obtained the consent of relatives from the two families to let them exhume the bodies.

The incident highlighted the serious problem of fake liquor sales, which has prompted the government to set up a special task force to eradicate the production of bootleg liquor.

Since Taiwan joined the WTO in January this year, rice wine has been listed as a distilled liquor and is subject to high taxation. Taiwan promised to levy a tax of NT$150 (US$4.30) per liter of rice wine in its first year of WTO admission and NT$185 during the second year.

A report in the United Evening News yesterday said that there were 23 suspicious deaths related to methanol poisoning.