_WORLD WATCH______________________________
________________Turkey_______________
Early release for papal assailant?
Agca may be eligible for amnesty program
The man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 could be released from prison 10 years early under a Turkish amnesty program.
The lawyer for Mehmet Ali Agca said that his client may be eligible for amnesty under a ruling by the country’s highest court that prisoners already serving reduced sentences may also benefit from a prison amnesty bill that came into effect last year. Agca was pardoned in Italy after serving nearly 20 years in prison for shooting the Pope and is now serving 10 years for a 1979 murder in Turkey and another seven for a robbery committed the same year.
His lawyer, Can Sevket Ozbay, said Agca would qualify for the amnesty and would have his sentence reduced by 10 years. He has served one year of his sentence and would remain in prison another six years. Agca shot the Pope after escaping a Turkish prison where was serving time for the murder. Turkey later convicted him in absentia and sentenced him to death. A 1991 amnesty reduced that sentence to 10 years in prison.
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