Pope's attacker to be freed from jail in Turkey

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Selcan Hacaoglu
Monday January 9, 2006
The Guardian


The man who shot Pope John Paul II 25 years ago is to be released from prison possibly as early as today, after a Turkish court ruled that he had completed his sentence for other crimes committed in Turkey, it emerged yesterday.

Mehmet Ali Agca, 46, was extradited to Turkey in 2000 after serving almost 20 years in prison in Italy for shooting and wounding the pope in St Peter's Square in Rome. His motives remain unclear.

In Turkey, Agca had to serve a 10-year sentence for murdering a Turkish journalist, Abdi Ipekci, in 1979. That sentence has been altered because of new Turkish laws. He had already served some of the time in 1979 before he escaped, resurfacing in 1981 in Rome.

His lawyer and family said they were not aware of the court decision. "I'm surprised," his lawyer, Dogan Yildirim, told the Associated Press by telephone. "If it's true, justice will finally be served. He has been in prison for so long."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,12272,1682235,00.html

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