State forensic experts will perform an autopsy on tissue removed from late rock singer Shin Hae-chul's small intestine to determine whether medical negligence led to his death, police said Wednesday.
   
The Seoul Songpa Police Station said it has sent the tissue submitted from the Asan Medical Center to the National Forensic Service for an additional autopsy.
   
The 46-year-old rock singer was pronounced dead at the general hospital in southern Seoul a week ago after being transferred from another hospital identified only by its initial "S," where he received abdominal surgery on Oct. 17. He had been in a coma for five days after the surgery.
   
Shin's wife has filed a complaint with the police against S hospital to look into alleged medical negligence. The hospital has strongly denied the allegations.
   
The move came two days after the state forensic service performed an autopsy on the late singer's body for four hours and announced that a 0.3-centimeter-long hole was found in his pericardium during the autopsy, suggesting that the hole might have resulted from the abdominal surgery.
   
Police earlier revealed, citing records from the Asan hospital, that a centimeter-long hole was found in his intestine when he was transported to the general hospital.
   
But the forensic experts said they could not see the alleged hole in Shin's small intestine because the Asan hospital had already cut part of his small intestine and stitched it during the emergency operation.
  
"We requested an additional autopsy in order to know whether the hole found in his small intestine was made by those who conducted the abdominal surgery," a police source close to the investigation said.
   
On Tuesday, S hospital said it had nothing to do with the two holes allegedly found in Shin's body.
  
It claimed the hole in his small intestine was probably made when the singer ate food as soon as he was discharged from the hospital although he was not supposed to do so.
   
Police said they plan to investigate in writing two doctors of the Asan hospital who performed the emergency surgery on Shin, and summon doctors and officials of S hospital this week to determine the exact cause of his death.
  
Shin's body was cremated at Seoul Memorial Park after a funeral attended only by his family members and friends on Wednesday, nine days after he passed away.
   
The cremated body was to be placed in a private crypt in Anseong, just south of Seoul, in the afternoon. The family is scheduled to unveil its position on the results of Monday's autopsy at the burial grounds.
   
Shin, an icon of the 1990s pop musical scene, released more than 30 studio albums and experimented with various genres ranging from modern rock to jazz and techno since his debut in 1988.
   
The singer had been actively campaigning on a wide range of social issues, including the legalization of marijuana and the scrapping of the adultery law. (Yonhap)