Pope gunman may go back to prison

THE Turkish gunman who spent 25 years behind bars for shooting Pope John Paul II in 1981 was released yesterday but may soon be returned to jail.

A white car whisked Mehmet Ali Agca - whose attempt to assassinate the Pope gained notoriety for him and shame for his homeland - through the gates of the high-security Kartal Prison.

Nationalist supporters who fought alongside Agca in street battles against leftists in the 1970s cheered and tossed flowers.

Agca, aged 48, had served the prison time for the plot against the Pontiff and the killing of a Turkish journalist. He was freed five years after he was pardoned by Italy and extradited to Turkey. He had served 20 years in Italy, where John Paul forgave him in a visit in 1983.

Justice Minister Cemil Cicek ordered Agca’s case be reviewed “to make sure no errors were committed in the complicated case.”

Agca would remain free until an appeals court made the final decision, he said.

“His release today does not mean the release is a guaranteed right,” he said.

After his release, Agca - who initially was handcuffed - reported to a military recruitment centre. As he left, uncuffed, he handed a journalist a photocopy of a Time magazine cover showing him with the Pope and the headline: “Why forgive?”

Agca, who had dodged the draft in the 1970s, then went for a routine check-up at a military hospital, where he was being screened to see if he was fit for mandatory military service. It was unclear whether the army would require him to serve. Agca’s lawyer said his client had applied previously to serve a shortened term in the military.

Agca slipped away through a back door. “We are happy. We endlessly thank the Turkish state,” said his brother Adnan.

He said one of the first things Agca wanted to do was order a typical Turkish meal of beans and rice at a restaurant overlooking the Bosporus Strait, the narrow waterway that bisects Istanbul and separates the European and Asian continents.

“He will lead a life as any other Turkish citizen,” the brother said.

Asked about reports that Agca had requested money for interviews, the brother said: “We don’t need any money. Love is more important than money. We don’t want money.”

Outside the hospital, about 250 left-wing activists protested his release.

“Agca will pay!” they shouted, holding pictures of comrades killed by Agca’s Gray Wolves.

Agca shot the Pope as he rode in an open car in St Peter’s Square in Rome on May 13, 1981, and was captured immediately. John Paul was hit in the abdomen, left hand and right arm, but Agca’s bullets missed vital organs.

Agca has never offered a motive for the shooting.

Many Turks were surprised and outraged at last week’s court decision releasing Agca on parole after serving four-and-a-half years in prison for killing a left-wing columnist, Abdi Ipekci, in 1979. Agca had escaped from a military prison that same year.

‘Day of Shame’, Ipekci’s newspaper, Milliyet, headlined yesterday. “The murderer with blood on his hands is returning to our midst,” it said.

Turgut Kazan, a lawyer representing the Ipekci family, said he would appeal Agca’s release to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Hundreds of Agca’s right-wing supporters came to Istanbul to celebrate.

“He is a family friend. We love him,” Mustafa Akmercan, one of two Turks who hijacked an Air Malta jetliner in 1997 to demand Agca’s release, said.

John Paul, who died in April, met with Agca in Italy’s Rebibbia prison in 1983 and forgave him.

Agca, who has been known in the past for frequent outbursts and claims he was the Messiah, has never undergone a thorough psychological evaluation, although he met briefly with a psychiatrist who declared him sane enough to stand trial for shooting the pope.

It was unclear whether Agca would face charges for evading the military.