Le Mesurier thought of suicide before his death: Wife

ISTANBUL

James Gustaf Edward Le Mesurier was thinking of committing a suicide 15 days before his death, the wife of former British intelligence officer told police in her statement.

Sweden citizen Emma Hedvig Christina Winberg, 39, told police officers on Monday that her husband had recently started to take psychiatric medications and told her 15 days before his death that he thought of killing himself.

According to Winberg, Le Mesurier took sleeping pills on the day of incident and she was sleeping when the incident took place early in the morning. She also said no foreigner came to the house before the incident.

The body of former MI6 officer Le Mesurier, 48, was found dead in the street in Beyoglu district in the early hours of Monday by passersby who were going to mosque for the morning prayer.

The police and paramedics arrived at the scene soon after they got the call and initially found nothing in his possession to identify the man, who was later found to be Le Mesurier.

Winberg said that they moved to the house in Beyoglu after Le Mesurier had started to get injection and drug treatment due to stress disorder as they needed to stay close to a health institution.

Taking medications for stress disorder

Till a few days before the incident, they were residing in a house in Istanbul’s Prince Islands, she added.

“We met an old friend in the evening. We came home at around 7 p.m. local time [GMT1600] and did not go out after then,” she stated.

Winberg said her husband went to sleep at around 2 a.m. after taking a sleeping pill, while she went to sleep two and half hours after him.

Le Mesurier woke up when she entered the room, the wife said, and asked her if she wanted a sleeping pill as well, which she replied yes.

“I woke up at around 5.30-6 a.m. when the police knocked on the door,” she said.

Winberg said she checked on her husband after not seeing him in the bed.

“I looked down from the window which was open at the third floor and saw him laying down on the ground,” she added.

Initial probe suggests suicide behind death

Teams investigating the incident thoroughly took tissue sample from Winberg's fingernails.

According to the initial examination on the body of Le Mesurier, the fractures on his hands and feet suggest high possibility of suicide.

Police also said that it is not possible for Le Mesurier to fall down from the 1-meter-wide ledge in front of the window and it is possible that he might have committed suicide.

Le Mesurier was the founder of a Syrian civil defense agency and he was awarded an Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth in 2016.

*Writing by Sena Guler