‘Poison found on remains President Özal’

ISTANBUL – The investigation into the death of the Turkish President Turgut Özal, who died of a heart attack in 1993, continues. The head of the judicial forensic service, Haluk Ince, said that on Friday at a press conference. He denied earlier reports in the media that the ‘rat poison’ strycchine was found on the remains of Özal.

Ince said ‘some findings’ were done, but that it was too early to draw any conclusions about the cause of death. The remains of the President were excavated last month at the order of the public prosecutor. Offically Özal died of a heart attack, but there have always been suspicions about murder. At the time there were speculations already and blood samples were lost even before they could be investigated. Also Özals wife and son have always claimed the President didn’t die a natural death.

The Turkish daily Bugün reported on Friday, based on the first results of the autopsy, that the ‘rat poison’ strycchine was used. The forensic lab, another paper claimed, supposedly called the Minister of Justice to tell him that the amount of the poison found was not enough to be sure it caused the death of the President.

In the early nineteen-ninetees the President was negotiating with Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the armed Kurdish group the PKK, to find a political solution to the Kurdish question. That was controversial. In those days, the war between the Turkish army and the PKK was getting harsher.