PROSECUTOR ASKS BROADER INQUIRY IN TRIAL OF AGCA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505100080-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 80
• Publication Date: May 28, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505100080-4
PRT1;:LE APPEARED A
NEW YORK TIMES
28 May 1985
The trial will test Mr. Agca's conten- Earlier in the day, Judge Santiapichi
tion that he was not a lone assassin but y denied a plea by defense lawyers that
that a conspiracy was planned in Bul- merges against two of those being
garia and that a suspected Turkish ,i tried in absentia, Tudor S. Aivasov and
racketeer offered Mr. Agca the equiva- Maj. Zhelyo K. Vasilev, be dropped be-
lent of $1.2 million to kill the Pope. cause of diplomatic immunity. Both
Mr. Marini, the prosecutor, said. the worked at the Bulgatian Embassy but
Turks imprisoned elsewhere in Europe dare in Sofia. The judge also rejected a
ProsecutorAsks
Broader Inquiry
In Trial of Agca
By JOHN TAGLIABUE
Spada] to The New York Time
ROME, May 27 - The trial here of
eight defendants accused of plotting to
assassinate Pope John Paul 11 opened
today with an appeal by a prosecutor
that the state seek evidence from sus-
pected Turkish drug traffickers and
terrorists jailed in several European
countries.
The session today was also marked
by an episode in which Mehmet All
Agca, the state's key witness'against
'five Turks and three Bulgarians; began
shouting: "I am Jesus Christ! I am om-
nipotent, and I announce the end of the
world!"
Later, Mr. Agca. a Turkish national
who has been convicted of wounding
the Pope in 1981, began a thoughtful
and measured account of how he ob-
tained the gun he used to shoot the
Pope. He gave testimony until a? break-
down of the courtroom's public address
system forced the judge to suspend
hearings until Tuesday.
The Prosecutor's Appeal
witness, who was sentenced to life im-
prisonment in July 1981 for having shot
and .wounded the Pope and two Amer-
ican women in St. Peter's Square.
Uniformed members of the Italian.
paramilitary police silenced Mr. Agca
when he tried to intervene after Judge
Severino Santiapichi began the Identi-
fication of the prisoners, only four of
whom are in custody. Although Mr.
Agca, 27 years old, is the state's chief
witness, he is charged in this trial also
with smuggling into Italy the
9-millimeter Browning pistol used in
the shooting.
Mr. Marini urged the court to voice
its interest to Dutch authorities in ques-
tioning a Turk arrested in' the Nether-
lands this month.-The man, identified
as Samet Asian or Arslan. was -carry-
ing a loaded Browning 9-millimeter
pistol that Mr. Agca says is one of four
guns he and his associates obtained in
Vienna, including the one he used to
shoot the Pope.'
Turk Held in West Germany
Mr. Marini said the court should also
seek to examine Yalcin Oezbey, a Turk
detained in West Germany on Feb. 28
The prosecutor, Antonio Marini, in
an impassioned appeal, asked the court
to notify the justice authorities in
France, Switzerland, West Germany
and the Netherlands that the court was
"intensely interested" in. taking evi-
dence from suspected Turkish terror-
ists and drug merchants in jail in those
countries.
The appeal reinforced the image,
which has emerged in pre-trial investi-
gations, of Turkish drug trafficking
channels stretching from -the Middle
East through Bulgaria to Western Eu-
rope and.involving. many of the Turk,..,
and Bulgarians Mr. Agca has impli-
cated in the conspiracy to kill-the Pope.
The trial that opened today is the sea
and to deal with the shooting of the'
Pope in St. Peter's Square on May 13,
1981. it is regarded as an especially
sensitive undertaking for the Italian
Government. The implication of the
prosecution's case is that the Bulgarian
Government, with the possible collu-
sion of the Soviet Union, was responsi-
ble for the plot against the Polish-born
Pope. Italy has been trying to improve
its relations with the Soviet Union and
the Eastern bloc, and the Soviet and
Bulgarian Govermmnnts have strongly
denied involvement in the purported
plot.
might shed further light on events de- iroq t by Ann Odre, a Buffalo, N.Y.,
resident who was shot and wounded
with the Pope, that she be admitted as.
a civil plaintiff.
Agea Seems Relaxed
Mr. Agca, dressed in a light blue suit,
his shirt collar casually open and his
hair cropped close, seemed relaxed, al-
most cocky, stalyding in his white steel
cage for much of the trial..By contrast,
Sergei L. Antonov, 36, who is the only
Bulgarian defendant in Italian custody
and who is a slight man with a mus-
tache and horn-rimmed glasses,
seemed startled. and frightened by
photographers and television. crews
who jammed the area in front of his
cage
Under questioning by Judge Santiap-
ichi; Mr. Agca said in elegant if hesi-
tant Italian that the shooting of the
Pope was "a most grave crime" and
also the greatest tragedy in human
hi"1 am, a man completely sane men-
tally," he went on, evidently trying to
dispel the image of disbalance pro-
jected by his earlier shouting "I am a
rational person, rather intelligent,
even though many define me as unpre-
dictable and crazy."
Exulting at Mr. Agca's outbursts
were 50 Bulgarian observers, most of
them diplomats and reporters but also
including Mr. Antonov's 62-year-old
mother, Ivanka, his sister, Tania
Gheorghieva, 33, and his daughter I -
Anna, 14. Mr. Antonov's defense law-
fiver, Giuseppe Consolo, suggesting that
the outbursts would be used to discredit
Mr. Agca's testimony, said, "It shows.
1I that he's psychologically unbalanced." .
and imprisoned in Bochum on charges
of using forged identity papers. The
prosecutor said information from the
German police seemed to indicate that
Mr. Oezbey "shared a criminal past"
with Mr. Agca and that he, and not Mr.
Agca, was guilty of the 1979 killing of a
Turkish newspaper editor, Abdi Ipekci,
a crime for which Mr. Agca was sen-
tenced to death by a Turkish court.
The prosecutor said the court should
notify French officials of its interest in
Abdullah Catli, another Turk he said
was in orison in France on charges of
v
in obtaining the forged passports that 11
enabled Mr. Agca to travel to Bulgaria
and back to Italy for the attempt on the
Pope's life. In Switzerland, he said, the
Italians should seek to hear Mehmet
Sener, a Turk on trial in Basel on
charges of heroin smuggling.
In what was taken as criticism of jus-
tice officials elsewhere in Europe, Mr.
Marini said Italian officials should act
quickly while the whereabouts of the
Turks were still known. Several Turks,
including Mr. Catli, Mr. Sener and Mr.
Oezbey, have been detained in the past
and released. ?
Judge Santiapichi will continue ques-
tioning Mr. Agca when the court recon-
enes Tuesday. --
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505100080-4