A Turkish court on Tuesday ordered former intelligence officer Enver Altaylı jailed pending trial on suspicion of inciting the intentional killing of Kaşif Kozinoğlu, another former spy whose 2011 death in an İstanbul prison is now the subject of a reopened investigation.

Altaylı, a former official with Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT), is already serving 23 years and four months on espionage and terrorism convictions. He was taken to the Silivri Courthouse from prison and questioned as a suspect before prosecutors sought his detention for “inciting intentional homicide,” according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.

Kaşif Kozinoğlu

A criminal court of peace approved the request, raising to eight the number of people jailed pending trial in the case.

Prosecutors have not disclosed the evidence behind the accusation against Altaylı, and the investigation is subject to a confidentiality order.

Before the questioning, Altaylı’s daughter and lawyer Dilara Yılmaz rejected attempts to link her father to Kozinoğlu’s death as lacking a factual or legal basis. She also said the 82-year-old had serious health problems and argued that transferring him from Ankara to İstanbul put his health at risk.

An Ankara court sentenced Altaylı in 2021 to 13 years and four months for political and military espionage and 10 years for membership in an armed terrorist organization over his alleged ties to the faith-based Gülen movement. Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the convictions in 2024.

The Turkish government labels the movement a terrorist organization and accuses it of orchestrating a failed coup in July 2016. The movement denies involvement in the coup or any terrorist activity.

Kozinoğlu, a veteran MİT officer who had served in Bosnia, Syria and Afghanistan, died on November 12, 2011, while in pretrial detention at what was then called Silivri Prison and is now Marmara Prison.

He became ill after exercising and was pronounced dead after he was taken to a hospital. His death was attributed to cardiovascular disease, and an autopsy found chronic ischemia, thickening of the heart walls and narrowing of the coronary arteries but no signs of physical violence or poisoning.

Questions persisted because he died 10 days before the first hearing in his trial and because of claims about delays in the prison’s medical response. His family also disputed claims that he had a pre-existing heart condition.

Kozinoğlu had been arrested in March 2011 after returning from Afghanistan. Prosecutors accused him of membership in the alleged Ergenekon network and of disclosing confidential state documents.

The Ergenekon investigations targeted hundreds of military officers, journalists, academics and lawyers over claims that they were part of a clandestine network seeking to overthrow the government.

The cases later faced criticism over long pretrial detention and procedural violations. The defendants in the Ergenekon case were acquitted in 2019.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan initially backed the investigations before his government began targeting the Gülen movement. Erdoğan changed his stance after corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated him, members of his family and his inner circle. He dismissed the corruption allegations as a conspiracy against his government and began accusing police officers, prosecutors and judges he associated with the Gülen movement of engineering the Ergenekon case, a claim the movement denies.

The original investigation into Kozinoğlu’s death was closed on April 10, 2012, after prosecutors found no evidence of wrongdoing, negligence or an avoidable delay in medical care. A Silivri court overturned that decision on August 26 after a review by a Justice Ministry unit that investigates unsolved crimes.

Forensic experts opened Kozinoğlu’s grave on September 12 and collected bone, soil and other samples for toxicological and chemical tests aimed at establishing the cause of death and whether a third party was involved.

The results have not been announced.

The probe has targeted former prison employees, healthcare workers, two media workers, former prosecutors and Kozinoğlu’s former cellmates. Two former prosecutors involved in the initial inquiry, Ali İşgören and Necip Doğan, and journalist Osman Arslan are among the other people jailed pending trial.

Investigators have also questioned three writers from the TV series “Valley of the Wolves: Ambush” about episodes involving a fictional former intelligence officer named Kazım Kaşifoğlu. One episode, broadcast two days before Kozinoğlu died, showed the character being threatened in prison, while a later episode showed him killed by an injection that made his death appear to be a heart attack.