Italy grants clemency to papal assailant

By Vaiju Naravane

ROME, JUNE 14. Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who tired to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981 has been pardoned and sent to Turkey where he is facing murder charges for the 1979 killing of a journalist. Despite the fact that he will probably be going to a much rougher penal system, the 44-year-old Agca said he was jubilant and in an interview from his prison cell in Ancona repeatedly thanked the Pope and the Italian President, Mr. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi who signed the pardon.

It is a little known fact that Ali Agca, at the time of his arrest in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981, when he shot the Pope at point blank range, was travelling on a valid Indian passport. Initially, Agca said he had been hired to kill the Pope by Soviet and Bulgarian agents. He, however, recanted that version and said he had planned the assassination alone after having a deeply religious experience.

The Vatican has been urging Ali Agca's release for a few years and a spokesman, Mr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, said, ``The concession of pardon happening during the Holy Year celebrations makes the Pope's personal satisfaction even more acute.'' This act of leniency on the part of the Italian Government fits perfectly with the Vatican's Holy Year campaign as the Jubilee is associated with the notion of pardon. Last month, the Vatican indicated that its plea to the Italian State for clemency for several thousand prisoners would include a plea in favour of Agca.

The Pope has publicly forgiven his would-be killer on two occasions - four days after the shooting in 1981 and two years later when he visited Agca in prison. The Pope suffered severe abdominal wounds which, doctors say, have had irremediable consequences. After shooting at the Pope Agca tried to turn the gun on himself but it jammed and he was arrested and later imprisoned for life. Charges that his act was part of a bigger conspiracy could never be totally proven.

In May, the Pope revealed that the assassination attempt was linked to the 1917 prophecy of Our Lady of Fatima when three Portuguese shepherd children saw a vision of the Madonna. She purportedly told them that an assassination attempt would be made on the Pope. Ali Agca fired on the Pope on the 64th anniversary of the prophecy. In court, Agca said he had been an ``instrument of God''. Agca is likely to serve a very short term in prison in Turkey which is reportedly preparing its own amnesty.

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Section  : International
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