Five officers suspended from Özal's death probe

Five officers from Ankara's police headquarters were relieved from their duty of an investigation launched over the suspicious death of Turkey's eighth President, Turgut Özal.

According to an initial report, five police officers working in the Directorate of Countering Organized Crime have been suspected of illegally wiretapping and recording phone conversations of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the late President's son, Ahmet Özal.

In the indictment, the public prosecutor, Türközmen Alper, demanded that these perpetrators should be sentenced for violating the privacy of communicaiton.

Özal's death has so far remained a matter of controversy. Even though his doctor declared that he had died of a heart attack, Özal's wife and children later alleged that Özal might have been poisoned.

Former President Turgut Özal died in May, 1993.