Agca freed

Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II in 1981, was released from a Turkish jail yesterday after serving more than a quarter of a century behind bars.

"Agca is now a free man. After 26 years Agca is now getting wet in the rain," his lawyer Mustafa Demirbag told Reuters.

But Turkish Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said he would appeal Agca's release and the 48-year-old former right-wing gangster could be jailed again for the 1979 murder of liberal newspaper editor Abdi Ipekci and charges dating from the 1970s.

"If Abdi Ipekci's murderer is looked after so well... how can you tell your children 'murder is bad'. Law was murdered today, it has no meaning anymore," Mr Cicek told a news conference. "We'll take this as far as the European Court of Human Rights."

Agca's motives in shooting the Pope in Rome's St Peter's Square remain a mystery, but some believe he was a hit-man for Soviet-era East European security services alarmed by the Polish-born Pontiff's fierce opposition to communism.

An Italian ex-magistrate who investigated the 1981 shooting says Agca could now be in danger as he knows too many secrets.

Dressed casually and looking solemn, Agca was whisked from his Istanbul jail to register for military service.

As he emerged, he said nothing, but handed reporters a copy of a Time magazine cover with a picture of himself meeting Pope John Paul. "Why Forgive?" the headline said.

The army insists he must do his military service, obligatory for all Turkish men, but it was not immediately clear whether or when this would take place. He left prison under heavy guard due to fears he might flee the draft as he did in the 1970s.