Turkish prosecutors have ordered the exhumation of former National Intelligence Organization (MIT) official Kaşif Kozinoğlu, who died in prison in 2011, as authorities reopen an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death.
The Silivri Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office ordered Kozinoğlu’s remains to be exhumed from Hekimbaşı Cemetery in Istanbul’s Ümraniye district in the coming days. Tissue samples will be collected for toxicological and chemical testing as investigators seek to determine whether he may have been given substances other than his prescribed medication.
Investigators are expected to focus particularly on Coraspin and vitamin supplements Kozinoğlu reportedly requested shortly before his death. The new examinations will also revisit claims concerning the original autopsy process and allegations surrounding an email sent to his lawyer after his death that reportedly disputed the initial heart attack explanation.
The latest development comes after prosecutors recently reopened the investigation into Kozinoğlu’s death, which has remained the subject of controversy for nearly 15 years.
Authorities previously issued detention warrants for 11 people who were working at the prison at the time of Kozinoğlu’s death. Ten suspects were detained, while another was reported to have fled the country.
Kozinoğlu was arrested in 2011 as part of the Ergenekon investigation and died on Nov. 12 that year, during his eighth month in Silivri Prison and shortly before he was expected to testify. His death was initially attributed to a heart attack.
He was scheduled to testify in a hearing and said in a statement shortly before his death that he feared he would be killed. Prosecutors had accused him of being a member of a terrorist group and leaking confidential documents. He was questioned by Zekeriya Öz, a prosecutor who is now on the run after an arrest warrant was issued for him on charges of FETÖ membership.
Questions later emerged over whether he had received timely and appropriate medical treatment, while allegations that he may have been poisoned also became part of the controversy surrounding his death.
According to details in the investigation file, Kozinoğlu showered on the morning of his death before returning to his cell, where he later became ill and called out to inmates in a neighboring cell. An emergency button was subsequently activated.
Investigators are also examining allegations concerning the response to that alert. According to claims based on prison surveillance footage cited in the case file, a prison officer who saw the warning on a central panel allegedly turned up the volume of a radio instead of immediately responding. It was also alleged that an emergency medical team was eating at the time.
Following the failed coup attempt in 2016, Turkish authorities reassessed many of the investigations and trials carried out by members of FETÖ's network within the judiciary. Officials have since argued that the Ergenekon proceedings were part of a broader effort by the terrorist group to remove senior military personnel and expand its influence within state institutions.
Kozinoğlu, born in 1955, graduated from the Turkish Military Academy in 1976 and later served in the Special Warfare Department and Special Forces Command before retiring from the military and joining MIT in 1995.
