Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Turkish prison to release man who shot Pope John Paul II

ANKARA, Turkey - The man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 will be released from prison this week after a court decided he had completed his sentence on charges in another case - a ruling that took the Vatican by surprise.

Mehmet Ali Agca was extradited to Turkey in 2000 after serving almost 20 years in Italy for shooting and wounding the pope in St. Peter's Square in Rome. His motive for shooting Pope John Paul in the abdomen on May 13, 1981, remains unclear.

Agca, who turns 48 today, was to be released on parole Thursday, said his lawyer, Mustafa Demirbag.

"He was eligible to be released on parole because he had no disciplinary problems," Demirbag said.

The semiofficial Anatolia news agency suggested that Agca was expected to be immediately enlisted by the military for obligatory service because he had dodged the draft. However, it was not clear if that would happen because the military generally only accepts conscripts younger than 41.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Vatican would defer to the judgment of the Turkish tribunal.

"The Holy See has learned only from news agencies of the news of the possible freedom of Ali Agca," he said in a brief statement. "The Holy See, before a problem of a judicial nature, submits to the decisions of the tribunals involved in this matter."

In one of the most famous moments of his papacy, Pope John Paul personally pardoned Agca 21/2 years after the attack, sitting face to face with his attacker during a 21-minute private meeting in a prison cell in Rome.

John Paul called his visit "a historic day in my life as a man, a Christian, as a bishop and bishop of Rome," and he added that Agca had expressed repentance.

"The Lord gave us the grace to be able to meet each other as men and as brothers," the pope said.

Reporters were barred, but a Vatican film showed that Agca bent and kissed the pope's ring at the start of the meeting and shook his hand after they sat down.

The pope also had pardoned Agca from his hospital bed five days after the shooting.

Upon his return to Turkey from Italy, Agca immediately was sent to prison to serve time for murdering Turkish journalist Abdi Ipekci in 1979.

--Information from the New York Times was used in this report.

[Last modified January 9, 2006, 00:57:08]