Free Republic

MAN WHO SHOT POPE TO BE FREED

Agca's First Target, Walesa By Cihan News Agency Published: Friday 24, 2005 zaman.com Mehmet Ali Agca, serving a life sentence for attempting to assasinate the late pope John Paul II, had previously targetted former Polish President Lech Walesa, it has been claimed. The claim came from the weekly Polish newspaper, Echo. The article says that Agca, under the influence of the communist trends, plotted an assassination against the Pope in 1981 but that his first target was Walesa, who was known for his anti-communist stance.

Bulgaria "Misled" Italy on Pope Would-be Killer Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who pulled the trigger against Pope John Paul II in 1981, has spend 37 days in Bulgaria under an Indian name, according to the Bulgarian authorities. Photo by CNN Politics: 21 April 2005, Thursday. An Italian investigator, who was involved in the inquiry into the 1981 attempted murder of Pope John Paul II at the time, claims Bulgaria has provided misleading information about the stay here of Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who pulled the trigger against the pontiff. Ilario Martella was the first magistrate to stand before...

Would-Be Assassin Mourning Pope's Death Sun Apr 3, 9:31 AM ET Middle East - AP By SELCAN HACAOGLU, Associated Press Writer ANKARA, Turkey - Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who seriously wounded the pope during a 1981 assassination attempt, is mourning the pope's death from his Turkish prison cell, his brother said Sunday. Adnan Agca said his brother told him Wednesday in Istanbul's Kartal prison that he hoped the pope lived a bit longer. "I know that he is in mourning. I feel that he is in deep sorrow over the death of the pope, who was like a...

ROME (CNS) -- The man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, jailed Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca, has called on the Vatican to reveal what he claims are undisclosed elements of the secret of Fatima. Agca made the request in an "Open Letter to the Vatican" following the death of Carmelite Sister Lucia dos Santos, the last visionary from Fatima, Portugal. Agca's letter was sent to the Rome newspaper La Repubblica, which published it Feb. 20. For years, Agca has maintained that his shooting of the pope was tied to the secrets of Fatima and to the end...

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - The Turkish man who shot Pope John Paul II wished the hospitalized pontiff a speedy recovery Thursday, but also urged him to tell the world that its end is near — the latest cryptic message from the mysterious man behind the 1981 attack. Mehmet Ali Agca was extradited to Turkey in 2000 after serving almost 20 years in Italy for the 1981 shooting of the pope. Agca, who is serving a prison sentence in Turkey in a murder and two robberies committed in 1979, has given conflicting reasons for the attack on the pope, and his motives...