Pope's failed assassin released
'I will write the perfect Gospel'
The Turkish man who attempted to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981, Mehmet Ali Agca, was freed from prison yesterday 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. Mr Agca made no comment but his lawyers said he was planning to hold a press conference, probably tomorrow.
Wearing a dark blue suit and a tie, Mr Agca went to a five-star hotel in central Ankara after a check-up at a military hospital diagnosed him with a psychiatric disorder.
Mr 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 Mr Agca spent the next 19 years in Italian prisons.
The motive behind the attack remains a mystery.
In a statement released through his lawyers Mr 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 Mr 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 Mr Agca was a mere puppet.
Mr 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.
Extradited to Turkey in 2000 after Italy pardoned him, Mr 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.