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<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="789"><tbody><tr> <td colspan="3" height="26"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="5"> </td> <td colspan="2" valign="top" width="784"> Man who shot Pope freed from jail
Posted: 19 January 2010 0344 hrs
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Mehmet Ali Agca is surrouded by the press as he steps out of a car in Ankara. </td> </tr> <tr> <td>
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ANKARA: The Turkish man who attempted to kill pope John Paul II in 1981, Mehmet Ali Agca, was freed from prison on Monday after almost three decades behind bars, keeping his motive shrouded in mystery.
The greying 52-year-old raised his fist as he drove away in a car from a high-security jail near Ankara, pursued by a swarm of reporters.
Agca made no comment but his lawyers said he was planning to hold a press conference, probably on Wednesday.
Wearing a dark blue suit and a tie, Agca went to a five-star hotel in central Ankara after a check-up at a military hospital diagnosed him with a psychiatric disorder, one of his attorneys, Yilmaz Abosoglu, told AFP.
Agca was a 23-year-old militant of the notorious far-right Grey Wolves, on the run from Turkish justice facing murder charges, when he resurfaced in Saint Peter's Square on May 13, 1981, and fired on the pope who was riding by in an open vehicle.
John Paul II was seriously wounded in the abdomen and Agca spent the next 19 years in Italian prisons.
The motive behind the attack remains a mystery.
In a statement released through his lawyers Agca - who claims to be a second messiah - declined to clarify the mystery. Instead he used the statement to "proclaim" the Apocalypse.
"All the world will be destroyed in this century. Every human being will die in this century," he wrote.
"The Gospel is full of mistakes. I will write the perfect Gospel," he added, signing the paper as "The Christ eternal, Mehmet Ali Agca".
A memorable picture of the gunman shaking hands with John Paul II was attached to the statement.
The late Polish pontiff had visited Agca in his Italian jail in 1983 and forgave him for the assassination attempt.
In his book "Memory and Identity" John Paul II said he was convinced that the attack was planned and commissioned and that Agca was a mere puppet.
Agca has claimed the attack was part of a divine plan, frequently changing his story and forcing investigators to open dozens of inquiries.
Charges that the Soviet Union and then-communist Bulgaria were behind the assassination attempt were never proved.
Agca's check-up at a psychiatric clinic on Monday was required by the military authorities on the grounds that he was a draft dodger.
Doctors declared him unfit for military service, obligatory for Turkish men over 18, confirming an earlier diagnosis of "advanced anti-social personality disorder" dating back to 2006 when he was briefly freed, his lawyers said.
Agca was granted an early release on January 12, 2006, but re-arrested after eight days when a court ruled that reductions to his jail term under amnesty laws and penal code amendments had been miscalculated.
Extradited to Turkey in 2000 after Italy pardoned him, Agca was convicted of the murder of prominent journalist Abdi Ipekci, two armed robberies and escaping from prison, crimes all dating back to the 1970s.
In rambling letters from prison, he has fed suggestions he is mentally disturbed. He once offered to team up with best-selling "Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown for a novel called "The Vatican's Code" and also volunteered to go to Afghanistan to kill Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Others, however, believe he is a sly operator playing the fool.
More than 50 foreign publishers and movie-makers have offered to buy Agca's story in the hope he may finally shed light on his attempt on the pope, lawyers said.
Agca also wants to go to the Vatican to visit the tomb of John Paul II, who died in 2005, and meet his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, they said. - AFP/de
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Posted: 19 January 2010 0344 hrs
<table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="260"> <tbody><tr> <td align="right" width="20">
</td> <td align="right" width="240">
</td> <td class="update" height="80" valign="top"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td bgcolor="#f6f6f6" width="138">Photos </td> <td bgcolor="#f6f6f6" width="47">1 of 1</td> <td bgcolor="#f6f6f6" width="18"><input disabled="disabled" id="btnPrev" value="<< Previous" onclick="Prev();" src="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/images/butt_previous.gif" height="15" type="image" width="18"></td> <td bgcolor="#f6f6f6" width="19"><input id="bntPlay" value="Play - Stop" onclick="Play()" src="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/images/butt_stop.gif" height="15" type="image" width="19"></td> <td bgcolor="#f6f6f6" width="18"><input disabled="disabled" id="btnNext" value=" Next >> " onclick="Next();" src="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/images/butt_next.gif" height="15" type="image" width="18"></td> </tr> </tbody></table>
Mehmet Ali Agca is surrouded by the press as he steps out of a car in Ankara. </td> </tr> <tr> <td>
</td> <td class="update">
</td> </tr> <tr> <td>
</td> <td>
</td> </tr> </tbody></table>
ANKARA: The Turkish man who attempted to kill pope John Paul II in 1981, Mehmet Ali Agca, was freed from prison on Monday after almost three decades behind bars, keeping his motive shrouded in mystery.
The greying 52-year-old raised his fist as he drove away in a car from a high-security jail near Ankara, pursued by a swarm of reporters.
Agca made no comment but his lawyers said he was planning to hold a press conference, probably on Wednesday.
Wearing a dark blue suit and a tie, Agca went to a five-star hotel in central Ankara after a check-up at a military hospital diagnosed him with a psychiatric disorder, one of his attorneys, Yilmaz Abosoglu, told AFP.
Agca was a 23-year-old militant of the notorious far-right Grey Wolves, on the run from Turkish justice facing murder charges, when he resurfaced in Saint Peter's Square on May 13, 1981, and fired on the pope who was riding by in an open vehicle.
John Paul II was seriously wounded in the abdomen and Agca spent the next 19 years in Italian prisons.
The motive behind the attack remains a mystery.
In a statement released through his lawyers Agca - who claims to be a second messiah - declined to clarify the mystery. Instead he used the statement to "proclaim" the Apocalypse.
"All the world will be destroyed in this century. Every human being will die in this century," he wrote.
"The Gospel is full of mistakes. I will write the perfect Gospel," he added, signing the paper as "The Christ eternal, Mehmet Ali Agca".
A memorable picture of the gunman shaking hands with John Paul II was attached to the statement.
The late Polish pontiff had visited Agca in his Italian jail in 1983 and forgave him for the assassination attempt.
In his book "Memory and Identity" John Paul II said he was convinced that the attack was planned and commissioned and that Agca was a mere puppet.
Agca has claimed the attack was part of a divine plan, frequently changing his story and forcing investigators to open dozens of inquiries.
Charges that the Soviet Union and then-communist Bulgaria were behind the assassination attempt were never proved.
Agca's check-up at a psychiatric clinic on Monday was required by the military authorities on the grounds that he was a draft dodger.
Doctors declared him unfit for military service, obligatory for Turkish men over 18, confirming an earlier diagnosis of "advanced anti-social personality disorder" dating back to 2006 when he was briefly freed, his lawyers said.
Agca was granted an early release on January 12, 2006, but re-arrested after eight days when a court ruled that reductions to his jail term under amnesty laws and penal code amendments had been miscalculated.
Extradited to Turkey in 2000 after Italy pardoned him, Agca was convicted of the murder of prominent journalist Abdi Ipekci, two armed robberies and escaping from prison, crimes all dating back to the 1970s.
In rambling letters from prison, he has fed suggestions he is mentally disturbed. He once offered to team up with best-selling "Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown for a novel called "The Vatican's Code" and also volunteered to go to Afghanistan to kill Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Others, however, believe he is a sly operator playing the fool.
More than 50 foreign publishers and movie-makers have offered to buy Agca's story in the hope he may finally shed light on his attempt on the pope, lawyers said.
Agca also wants to go to the Vatican to visit the tomb of John Paul II, who died in 2005, and meet his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, they said. - AFP/de
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