PAPAL PLOT TRIAL HEARS TESTIMONY IN SWITZERLAND

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505100030-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: October 27, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505100030-9
ARTICLE ANr tiF.I)l 27 October 1985
ON PAGE
Plot Trial Hears Testimony in Switzerland
Papal
By JOHN TAGLIABUE
*"W to 1bo NW York lum
ROME, Oct. 23 - The court t
John Paul 11 traveled to witzer-,
land this week an the first of several
trips through Europe to question do-
fendants and witnesses thought capa-
ble of tmtinR the contentions of the
court's chief witness, Mehmet All
Agca.
On the first leg of its travels the court
heard an extreme rig wft Turk
serving a five-year jail sentence ink
Switeerland for drug trafficking call Mr. Agca ,y big ia?' and contest his
ecourit of the papal assassination at,
"tempt.
The Turk, Mehmet Senor, 29 years
old, has been accused by other Turks,
including Mr. Agca, of having bought
the gun used to shoot the Pope, of ac-
companying Mr. Agca to Switzerland
on his way to Italy, and of knowing In
advance of Mr. Agca's intention to kill
the Pope Thetestimony the court seeks has as-
sumed added significance since the
death in a Turkish jail earlier this
month of one of the trial's original eight
defendants, Bekir Celenk, a purported
Turkish racketeer who Mr. Agca says
was his original link with the Bulgarian
I Mr. Celenk, who was on trial in Tur-
key on charges of drug and arms smug
gling when he died of a heart attack
Oct. 14, consistently denied complicity
in the plot against the Pope. But Italiar
magistrates hoped Mr. Celenk, who
was on trial here in absentia, might
help unravel some of Mr. Agca's often-
contradictory testimony. .
In two days of questioning by Chief
Judge Severino Santlapichi, Mr. Senor
denied Mr. Celenk had anything to dc
with the shooting of the Pope.
The public prosecutor, Antonio Mari-
ni. said by telephone from Switzerland
that Mr. Senor, who is serving a jail
sentence in Burgdorf, near Bern,
agreed to come to Rome to face Mr.
Agca. Despite Mr. Celenk's death, Mr.
Marini said, the court sought to travel
to Turkey Nov. it to hear Abuzer Ug r
lu, another purported Turkish racket-
eer and associate of Mr. Celenk who op-
erated out of Sofia, the Bulgarian capi-
tal. Mr. Agca has said Mr. Ugurlu was
one of his contacts when he first trav-
eled to Bulgaria in 1960.
The prosecutor said the court also
sought permission to visit Bulgaria
Nov. 21 to question Maj. Zhelyo K.
Vasilev, the former deputy military
attache at Bulgaria's Rome embassy.
and Todor S. Aivasov, a Bulgarian dip
lomat. Mr. Agca has implicated both
men in the purported plot. The men
have denied any wrongdoing, and Bul?
aaria has refused to hand them over tc
the Italians.
The seven defendants are Sergei 1.
Antonov, the former head of the Romel
office of the Bulgarian airline, the only
Bulgarian in Italian custody, Mr. Aiva-
sov, Major ' Vasilev, and four Turks -
Mr. Agca, Musa Serdar Celebi, Omar
Bagci and Oral Celik.
In testimony that cast the role of
Turkish right-wing extremists far
larger than the picture that emerged in
pretrial investigations, Mr. Agca has
said during the trial that he shared an
apartment in Vienna with Mr. Sener
and several other Turks, and that Mr.
Senor helped him buy the pistol there
that was later used to shoot the Pope.
Abduilah Catli, another extreme
right-wing Turk who, according,to Mr.
Agca, lived in the apartment, testified
in September that Mr. Sener traveled
with Mr.. Agca from Vienna o ? Switzer-
land in April 1981 and learned there
that he planned to shoot the Pope
According to an official who attended
the hearings this week, Mr Sener
denied having helped purchase the gun,
and said he knew nothing of Mr. Agca's
intentions.
Mr. Sener's testimony departs significantly from the account he gave Judge
Ilarlo Martella, the magistrate whose
investigation .led to the trial. Ques-
tioned by Judge Martella, Mr Senor
denied any contact with Mr Agca. In-.
deed, the existence of the Vienna apart-
ment and the extensive-contacts of Mr.
Agca with other Turks like Mr, Senor
and Mr. Catli in Western Europe before
the assassination attempt are among
the most startling results to emerge
from the trial's 50 sessions thus far.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505100030-9