BANGKOK — The bullet-ridden cadaver of a man executed for allegedly cannibalizing small children six decades ago will be cremated later this week after modern research found he was framed for the crimes, a prison official said Monday.
Corrections department chief Naras Savestanan said the embalmed body of Si Quey Sae-Ung will be removed from an exhibition inside the Siriraj Forensic Museum, where he has been displayed inside a glass cabinet since 1959. Si Quey’s body will be cremated at a temple on Thursday in a gesture of his exoneration.
Si Quey’s grisly body has long been an attraction at the medical museum, which also displays formaldehyde-preserved remains of unusual bodies and evidence from other well-known murder cases.
His body was preserved right after his execution in 1959 for medical students to study his “abnormality.”
Naras said the decision came after a complaint put forward by locals who saw the public exhibition of his corpse as a violation of Si Quey’s dignity.
Si Quey, known locally as See Uey, was a Chinese immigrant who was arrested in 1958 on suspicion of killing five children and eating their organs. He confessed to the charges and was later sentenced to a firing squad the year after.
However, new evidence suggests that Si Quey, who reportedly relied on interpreters in his trials amid anti-Chinese sentiments at the time, was most likely innocent.
The sign above his cabinet which says “Cannibal” was replaced with “Death row prisoner” in 2019 following the new findings.
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