ASSESSMENT OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR PAPAL ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05271568
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: May 7, 2021
• Case Number: F-2019-01480
• Publication Date: August 28, 1984

Approved for Release: 2021/05/06 C05271568
Central Intelligalee An
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Washington. C 20505
MEMORANDUM
28 August 1984
SUBJECT: Assessment of Responsibility for Papal Assassination
Attempt
1. The Italian Prosecutor General's report eoncerning the
alleged Bulgarian plot to kill Pope John Paul II lays out a case
for a conspiracy in which the convicted Turk, Mehmet All Agca,
carried out the attack with the sponsorship, direction, and
assistance of Bulgarian official personnel and members of the
"Turkish maf i a."
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2. Did A�ca Act Alone? Mehmet Ali Agca probably did not
act alone in his attempt-to assassinate the Pope in May 1981.
One year after his arrest, Agca repudiated his initial testimony
that he had acted alone, and began_ to claim that he was part of a
wider conspiracy. Although the credibility of Agca's testimony
has been weakened by numerous retractions and admitted lies, a
number of witnesses have attested to the presence in St. Peter's
Square on the afternoon of the shooting of another individual
involved in the attack. Italian authorities possess a photograph
of an individual running from the Square with a gun in his hand.
3.
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Approved for Release: 2021/05/06 C05271568
Approved for Release: 2021/05/06 C05271568
SUBJECT: Assessment of Responsibility for Papal Assassination
Attempt
The Italian Prosecutor General--in his recommendation
last spring that Agca and eight other persons be brought to trial
on charges of conspiring to kill the Pope--contended that Agca
received funding and direction from a number of "Turkish mafia"
members and Bulgarian diplomatic personnel.
4. The Turkish Connection. When Agca recanted his early
testimony and began to claim that he had not acted alone in the
shooting, he reconstructed his travels and contacts during the
two years before he turned up in St. Peter's Square. In so
doing, he implicated a number of Turkish and Bulgarian
nationals. Agca claimed to have met with three of the accused
Turks in Zurich in late March 1981, at which time they allegedly
perfected the final plan for the attack on the Pope and agreed
upon a payment of three million German marks.
5. The Bulgarian Connection. None of the three accused
Bulgarians has ever admitted to having met Agca. According to
the prosecutor's report, Agca has provided accurate and detailed
descriptions of the various personal characteristics of the
accused Bulgarians. Agca claimed that he had met one of the
Bulgarians, Todor Ayvazov, in Sofia in 1980--at which time the
plot allegedly was hatched�and that he met the others. Zhelvo
Vassilev and Sergey Antonov, in Rome later that year.
Agca maintained
that Antonov's automobile was to be used to transport him and his
alleged Turkish co-conspirator Oral Celik to the Bulgarian
Embassy.
6. Agea and Celik were then to leave Italy in a TIR
(Transport International Routier) truck. The prosecution
maintains that the -Bulgarian Embassy made unprecedentedly urgent
demands for the Italians to clear the TIR truck for departure
from the Embassy, rather than at the customary inspection site,
an hour after the shooting.
7. On Balance. Much of the Italian Prosecutor General's
case alleging glist Bloc complicity in the Papal attack appears to
be dependent solely on the testimony of Agca, and he has not
always been truthful or consistent over the period of his
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Approved for Release: 2021/05/06 C05271568
Approved for Release: 2021/05/06 C05271568
SUBJECT: Assessment of Responsibility for Papal Assassination
Attempt
incarceration. Further, Agca himself has stated that he had
access to television and newspapers and even telephone
directories since the end of 1981, which, while in conformity
with rules of the Italian penal system, enabled him to obtain
information relevant to the case. Even if Agca did have contacts
with the accused Bulgarians, they may have involved narcotics or
"grey arms" dealings rather than a Papal assassination
conspiracy.
8.
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9. The next move in the case rests with Magistrate
Martella, who must decide whether the case should be tried. If
it does go to court--and this seems likely--the trial of the
alleged conspirators would probably begin late this year or in
1985.
Approved for Release: 2021/05/06 C05271568