Agca grieves for ‘spiritual brother’

MEHMET ALI AGCA, the Turkish gunman who attempted to assassinate John Paul 24 years ago, said from his prison cell yesterday that he was joining in mourning the pontiff’s death.

The Pope met Agca in an Italian prison in 1983 and forgave him for the shooting.

Agca was extradited to Turkey in 2000 after almost 20 years behind bars in Italy. He is currently serving a 17-year prison sentence in Istanbul for earlier crimes in Turkey.

“I participate in the mourning of my Christian Catholic people,” Agca said in a written statement in Italian. He referred to the Pope as “my spiritual brother”.

Agca has given conflicting reasons for shooting the Pope in St Peter’s Square in 1981 and has sometimes suggested that his actions were part of God’s plan. “The divine plan has come to its conclusion,” Agca said in his hand-written letter.

Suspicions that the Turk acted on behalf of the former Soviet bloc, which feared that the Polish-born Pope would help trigger anti-communist revolts, linger despite denials by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Agca’s lawyers claim he could be released from jail as early as 2005 because of recent changes to Turkish law.

However, it remains unclear if the Turkish authorities would agree to free him.