The remains of former President Turgut Ozal, who led Turkey out of military rule in the 1980s and drove far-reaching economic reform, were exhumed on October 1 on the orders of prosecutors investigating suspicions of foul play in his death 19 years ago. Amid tight security, mechanical diggers dug up his grave within a towering mausoleum in an Istanbul cemetery. Ozal died of heart failure in April 1993 in an Ankara hospital at the age of 65 and while in office. Relatives and associates voiced suspicions he had been poisoned.
A Muslim scholar was present at the exhumation, which lasted 7-1/2 hours. Ozal’s remains were placed in a zinc-coated coffin which was wrapped in the Turkish flag and carried ceremoniously by police officers in formal uniforms to a municipal hearse. Police on motorcycles escorted the hearse to the forensics institute in an outlying district of the city. Forensic teams will investigate whether any poisonous substances are present in the remains, which were expected to be returned to Ozal’s family by the weekend, the head of the state forensic medicine institute, Haluk Ince, told reporters.