Chow Hok Kuen, 28, a British citizen born in Hong Kong of Taiwanese parents, was arrested Thursday in Bangkok's Chinatown with the possession of
a suitcase full of dead babies thought to have been used in a black magic rituals in Thailand, while he was trying to smuggle the corpses into Taiwan.
Thai police received a tip-off that fetuses were being sold to wealthy clients through a website advertising black magic services.
'The bodies are of children between the ages of two and seven months. Some were found covered in gold leaf,' Wiwat Kumchumnan, sub-division chief of the police's Children and Women Protection unit, said.
'The bodies are of children between the ages of two and seven months. Some were found covered in gold leaf,' Wiwat Kumchumnan, sub-division chief of the police's Children and Women Protection unit, said.
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Police said the corpses had a number of religious threads and tattoos on them and that it was not clear where the bodies came from.
The corpses were bought from a Taiwanese national for 200,000 baht (£4,000) and could have been sold for six times that amount in Taiwan, police said.
In Thailand there is a grisly ritual known as 'Kuman Thong', where dead babies are surgically removed from their mother's womb and undergo a ceremonial ritual. But instead of burying them, they are roasted dry and covered with a lacquer before being painted with gold leaf.
Black magic rituals are still practised in Thailand, where street-side fortune tellers offer ceremonies to reverse bad luck.
Kuen faces one year in prison and a 2,000 baht fine (£40) if he is found guilty.
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