News Brief

Man who tried to kill Pope released

-12/01/06

The Turkish gunman who shot John Paul II in 1981, but was later forgiven by the Pope, has left prison after serving 25 years behind bars.

He served his time in Italy and Turkey for the plot against the Pontiff and the killing of a Turkish journalist.

A Turkish court gave its assent to release papers earlier this week, issued by an Istanbul jail, which stated that Mehmet Ali Agca had completed his sentence.

The 47-year-old was extradited to Turkey in 2000 after being pardoned by Italy.

He served 19 years in an Italian prison for shooting and wounding the Polish pope in St Peter's Square.

The Vatican had described the Pope as "very happy" about the pardon, before his death.

It had said that that John Paul II was particularly pleased because the clemency was granted during the Roman Catholic Church's Holy Year, the theme of which was to pardon and forgiveness.

John Paul II publicly forgave Mr Agca and even visited him in prison.

In the book Memory and Identity, released shortly before he died last April, John Paul II revealed how close he came to death in the attack, made as he was heading for an audience in his open-topped "pope-mobile".

He believed the fact that Agca was unsuccessful was "a testimony to divine grace".

"He knew how to shoot, and he certainly shot to kill. Yet it was as if someone was guiding and deflecting the bullet," he said.

Referring to the assassination attempt as "one of the last convulsions" of the ideological struggles of the 20th century, Pope John Paul was convinced Agca was not acting alone.

The suspected involvement of then communist Bulgaria and Soviet intelligence was never proven, however.

At the time of the attack, Agca was a 23-year-old far-Right militant.

Upon his extradition, he was jailed to complete sentences for the 1979 murder of a Turkish journalist and two robberies.