Posted on 08/13/2002 12:07:34 PM PDT by Destro
Polish Prime Minister says government was alerted of planned assassination attempt during 1997 papal visit
Mon Aug 12,11:44 AM ET
By ANDRZEJ STYLINSKI, Associated Press Writer
WARSAW, Poland - Just days before Pope John Paul ( news - web sites) II's ninth visit to his native Poland, Prime Minister Leszek Miller said Monday that the government was alerted to a possible assassination attempt on the Polish-born pontiff during a 1997 visit.
Miller, who was the minister charged with domestic security in 1997, did not provide any details on the alleged plot involving a mercenary from Bosnia. However, Polish security officials confirmed that such a threat had been made on the pope's 11-day visit in May and June 1997, but that it never materialized.
"We had a lot of reports, luckily unconfirmed, about various efforts to disturb that visit, including information, which we received shortly before the pope's visit, that a former mercenary from Bosnia, a sharp shooter, was hired to kill the pope," Miller said in an interview with state Polish Radio 1.
He said all the information was run by security officials at the Vatican ( news - web sites).
Katarzyna Turska, head of the government press office, said the Interior Ministry "confirmed there was such a real threat," but declined to provide more details because it concerned "operational activities" of the security service.
A high-ranking officer of the Government Protection Office, the national security agency that protects the pope and other high-ranking visiting dignitaries, also said security officials had received "unofficial information" of a possible assassination attempt during the pope's stop in Zakopane, a southern mountain resort, in June 1997.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said there were no security problems and no suspects were ever identified in connection with the threat.
He said the information did not prompt any special actions, as the security officers are on high alert for all papal visits.
The Polish-born pontiff was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt by Turkish gunman, Mehmet Ali Agca, during a public audience in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981.
Agca spent nearly 20 years in an Italian prison after shooting the pope and was extradited to Turkey two years ago, where he is serving a 17-year sentence for robbing a factory and murdering a Turkish newspaper editor in 1979.
The pope recovered from a wound in the abdomen, but doctors say his body was forever weakened by the shooting.
Some 18,000 police officers, 17,000 firefighters and 10,000 lay parishioners will provide security during the pope's visit to the Krakow region, where the pope was ordained and served as a priest and bishop before being elected pope in 1978.
Wonderful seminary. Great people. We also visited the priest's hometown of Walbczyk, where his brother was mayor, a former prisoner for solidarity activities, and where his mother prepared a meal of REAL polish sausage and some traditional cabbage dish. (Wish I had that recipe.)
Walbczyk had a great pottery/china industry going and we brought back some quality goods at awesomely low prices.
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