A Canadian man who died in Cuba last month was mistakenly buried in a Russian town north of Moscow, and officials on Friday were scrambling to repatriate his body.
A government source who was not authorized to speak on the matter told AFP it had been a challenge to determine what had happened to the body of Faraj Allah Jarjour.
Efforts were now being made to bring his body back to Canada, the official said, after it was found that two bodies had been switched in Cuba before being sent to the wrong countries.
Jarjour, originally from Syria, was vacationing in Varadero, Cuba, when he died suddenly during a swim in the ocean in late March.
His remains were believed to have been sent to Canada, but mortuary technicians in Quebec tasked with preparing the body for burial discovered the man in the coffin looked nothing like a photograph his family provided.
The cadaver, public broadcaster CBC reported, had a full head of hair, tattoos and looked 20 years younger.
Jarjour, who landed in Canada in 2016 after fleeing war in Syria, was 68 years old and had no hair.
Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez apologized to the family for the mix-up, describing it in a social media post as “an unfortunate incident.”
His Canadian counterpart, Melanie Joly, said she “shares the utmost concern for the unimaginable situation his family faces.”
“They’re going to un-bury him and send him to Canada,” Jarjour’s daughter Miriam told CBC. “It’s not a good situation, but we don’t have a choice. It’s not in our control. We can only be patient.”