A Turkish court has ordered the body of legendary weightlifter Naim Süleymanoğlu's to be exhumed to settle a paternity suit.

The court ordered the extraction of DNA samples after Sekai Mori, a Japanese citizen, claimed that the multiple Olympic gold medalist was her biological father, and won a lawsuit. Süleymanoğlu died last year at the age of 50.

Meanwhile, Aziz Demir, the lawyer for Süleymanoğlu's daughters Sezin and Esin has claimed that it was a plot to extort money from the family.

Mori, 27, has claimed that the Turkish weightlifter had an affair with her journalist mother Kyoko Mori, who he met during the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Demir told Anadolu Agency (AA) that Süleymanoğlu's family was opposed to the exhumation and the lawsuit was an attempt to grab the late weightlifter's inheritance.

Süleymanoğlu, one of Turkey's most famous sports personalities, succumbed to a liver failure last November.

Known as the "Pocket Hercules," the diminutive weightlifter won three Olympic gold medals and set multiple world and Olympics records in his lifetime.