in Istanbul Monday, January 23, after state prosecutors decided he has to spend another four years behind bars for several crimes.
Mehmet Ali Agca was told this weekend that he must serve another four years for murdering a prominent Turkish newspaper editor two years before he tried to kill the pontiff in 1981.
Agca, 48, was freed from jail on January 12 before being taken back into custody on January 20. He was reportedly silent and unsmiling as he walked out of the prison gate, congratulated by his guards and cheered by supporters who threw red and white carnations at his car.
Agca is seen as a hero by some Turkish nationalists, but others reacted with dismay at news that he was released. Turkish Justice Minister Cemil Cicek was among those who were outraged and had appealed against his release earlier this month. Cicek argued that cuts in his original jail term had been miscalculated.
JAILED TILL 2010
Prosecutors said he must now stay in prison until January 18, 2010, the Anatolia agency reported.
The former right-wing gangster served 19 years in an Italian prison for the assassination attempt, before he was pardoned under apparent pressure from the pope who said he forgave him. Following the shooting Pope John Paul II urged people to "pray for my brother (Agca), whom I have sincerely forgiven."
It was seen as a remarkable gesture for a man who on May 13, 1981, nearly died after being shot by Agca with a nine millimeter pistol from some 15 feet (5 meters) away while meeting crowds in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City.
In 1983, Pope John Paul II and his would-be assassin met and spoke privately at the Italian prison where Agca was being held. The pontiff also kept contacts with Agca’s family over the years, having met his mother in 1987 and his brother a decade later.
KGB INVOLVEMENT?
The Turk initially claimed he was acting alone in the attack, but later said he was trained by Bulgarian and Czech experts and blamed the Soviet secret service KGB for the attempted assassination. There was concern among leaders in the Soviet block that the charismatic Polish-born pope, who supported the anti-Communist Solidarity movement in Poland, could spark revolutions.
However then Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and Bulgaria strongly denied the allegations of secret service involvement in the assassination attempt.
Under new Turkish laws, Agca’s time served in an Italian prison was initially deducted from the 25 years left on his sentence in Turkey. But Turkey’s Supreme Court ruled last Friday, January 20, that this was not valid, paving the way for his return to jail.
His time as a free man added up to a grand total of eight days, minus a few hours in an army recruitment center to evaluate his fitness for the obligatory national military service he had avoided. (With reports from Turkey and BosNewsLife Research)
