Turkey exhumes ex-president for toxicology testing

PanARMENIAN.Net - Work started early on Tuesday, Oct 2 to open late President Turgut Özal's grave, as part of a belated investigation into the cause of the 1993 death of the president, Today’s Zaman reports.

A criminal investigation team, a bomb disposal team, police officers and officials from the Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK) are standing ready at the gravesite. Heavy machinery was deployed to the area early in the morning to carry out the work at the site, which has been surrounded by steel walls so that it cannot be seen from outside.

The case was opened earlier this year after a number of witnesses spoke of unusual circumstances on the day of the death of the then-president, who was reported to have suffered from a heart attack. The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office recently issued a warrant to exhume the remains of the president for toxicology testing.

The prosecutor's office is also investigating a number of unusual circumstances that came to light following Özal's supposed heart attack. Certain facts - such as that on the day of his death his in-house doctor and nurse were both out, that staff were not able to start the ambulance due to a mechanical problem, the lack of first aid equipment at the presidential residence and other similar issues -- have led to suspicions surrounding the death of the former president.

In addition, the office is focused on inconsistencies between the statements of Özal's doctor and his family members regarding the lack of an autopsy. Özal's doctor, Cengiz Aslan, claimed that the family of the former president did not request an autopsy, but the Özal family has denied this claim.

Özal, the eighth president of the Turkish Republic, died of heart failure in April 1993 in an Ankara hospital at the age of 65 and while in office.