Pope gunman to be released from Turkish prison
By APMonday, January 18, 2010
Pope gunman to be released from prison
ANKARA, Turkey — Lawyer says the Turkish man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 is set to be released from prison after completing his sentence for crimes committed in Turkey.
Lawyer Gokay Gultekin says Mehmet Ali Agca, who spent more than 29 years in prison, will be immediately taken to a military facility and than to a hospital to renew a 2006 military hospital report which said he is not fit for obligatory military service because of “severe anti-social personality disorder.”
Agca on Monday completes a 10-year sentence for killing a prominent Turkish journalist, Abdi Ipekci, in 1979.
Agca was extradited to Turkey in 2000 after serving almost 20 years in Italy for shooting and wounding the pope in St. Peter’s Square in Rome. His motive for the attack remains unclear.
