Colonel’s death is not suicide, report says

MALATYA - Anatolia News Agency

An expert report on the investigation of Colonel Kazım Çillioğlu’s death in 1994 revealed that the incident was not a suicide but “murder.” Çillioğlu was claimed to have committed suicide at his military home while he was serving as the Tunceli Regiment Commander.

The experts delegation formed within the scope of the investigation lead by Malatya prosecutor’s office drafted its report after it investigated the collected evidence and after it completed its research on bones exhumed from Çillioğlu’s grave.

In the 62-page report submitted to the office of the acting chief prosecutor, it was stated that Çillioğlu had not committed suicide as claimed but that he was murdered.

Authorities had issued an autopsy report in 1994 indicating that Çillioğlu, who was found dead in his lodgings, had committed suicide, but the investigation was then re-opened in response to an appeal by his son Gökhan Çillioğlu.

A subsequent autopsy conducted in 2011 then revealed the presence of arsenic in the colonel’s hair and fractures on his ribs. It had also came to light three years after the incident that two firearms given to the colonel by the Turkish military were actually bought with forged documents.

Recent evidence also suggested that Col. Kazım Çillioğlu’s suicide note bore a forged signature.