Former Turkish president Ozal poisoned, ATK report says

A Turkish daily claimed that former Turkish president had been killed by a very venomous poison.

Citing an unpublished autopsy report prepared by the Forensic Medicine Institute (ATK), Bugün daily said in its report that Turgut Özal, Turkey’s revolutionary president, was poisoned by «strychnine creatine,» a powerful deadly poison.

An investigation into the suspicious death of the former president began 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 a heart attack. The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office recently issued a warrant to exhume the remains of the president for toxicology testing.

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

Prosecutors decided in September that Özal's remains should be exhumed and an autopsy performed after a state supervisory board, acting on the order of President Abdullah Gül, produced a report in June that voiced suspicions about the death.

The report was ordered in response to the suspicions of Özal's family and friends about his death and the subsequent investigation.

After the reburial of Özal, the ATK said it will release its report in two months.

Adapted from Worldbulletin