Then Pope John Paul II meets with his would-be assassin, Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca, in a cell of Rome's Rebibbia prison in this December 27, 1983 file photo. Agca will be freed Thursday. - REUTERS
ANKARA (AP):
The Turkish man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 is expected to be released from prison Thursday after completing his sentence, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.
Anatolia said a Turkish court has approved the release of Mehmet Ali Agca, 47, was extradited to Turkey in 2000 after serving almost 20 years in prison in Italy for shooting and wounding the Pope in St. Peter's Square in Rome.
The court said he has completed his sentence for unrelated crimes he committed in Turkey.
But his lawyer and family said they were not aware of the court decision.
"I'm surprised," his lawyer Dogan Yildirim told The Associated Press by telephone. "If it's true, justice will finally be served. He has been in prison for so long."
Agca's sister, Fatma Agca, was also surprised.
"We did not hear it," Fatma Agca told the AP from the family home in the south-eastern city of Malatya.
Agca, a draft-dodger, was expected to be immediately enlisted by the military for obligatory military service, Anatolia said. Turkish paramilitary police are expected to take Agca first to a local military station and then to a military hospital in Istanbul for medical checks, a routine procedure.
