Rio city: Brazil's corruption saga hit a macabre new low Tuesday with allegations that a Rio city councillor forced grieving relatives to pay bribes to claim bodies of loved ones.


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The councillor, Gilberto de Oliveira Lima, and two other officials are accused of forming a "mafia" at Rio de Janeiro`s medical investigation center, where autopsies are performed, the state prosecutors` office said in a statement.


"The scheme lasted at least from 2014 to now," the prosecutors said.


De Oliveira Lima is accused of working with four hospitals to transfer bodies to the investigative center even when there was no need for autopsies. 


Five funeral homes would then pay bribes to the three officials in exchange for being able to do their work at the coroner`s facilities, which is against the law, the statement said.


"To boost profits, the hospitals sent the (medical center) bodies of people who had had natural -- not violent or suspicious -- deaths and therefore did not require being sent there. In this way, turnover was always high."


Finally, "relatives of the deceased were made to pay bribes to recover the bodies," a spokesman for the prosecutors` office told AFP.


The alleged funeral home scheme was announced as Brazil staggers through the biggest corruption scandal in its history.


In an operation dubbed "Car Wash," federal prosectors have uncovered an embezzlement and bribery scheme running through the highest echelons of politics and big business.


President Michel Temer himself is accused of agreeing to take millions of dollars in bribes from a meatpacking company. Last week the scandal-plagued lower house of Congress voted overwhelmingly to nix prosecutors` demand for a trial.