SOVIET DENIES AGCA CHARGE ON POPE PLOT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120023-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: July 10, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Y
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120023-5
ARTICLE APPEARED NEW YORK TIA4ES
ON PAGE _-3 10 July 1983
Soviet Denies Agca. Charge on Pope Plot'
MOSCOW, July 9 (AP) - Reacting to I
the assertion by Mehmet All Agca on
Friday that K.G.B. agents were in.
volved in his attack on Pope John Paul
II, the Soviet Union today called the ac-
cusation "threadbare propaganda."
Mr. Agca, who tried to kill the Pope
on May 13, 1981, in St. Peter's Square,
made his charge that the K.G.B. and
the Bulgarian intelligence service were
involved in the attempt as he shouted
answers to reporters' questions on Fri.
day after being questioned by the police
in another can.
j The official press agency Tans said
"incontrovertible evidence" proved
that charges of Soviet bloc involvement
were "nothing more than absurd insinu-
ations." It did not say what evidence it
meant.
Tass mentioned Mr. Agca's state.
ment only in passing and said Italian in-
vestigation of previous allegations of
Bulgarian involvement "has shown that
there are absolutely no facts to bear
out, directly or indirectly, the socialist
countries' complicity in the heinous
crime."
Tass Criticizes Western Press
Rather than dealing directly with Mr.
Agca's charge, Tass criticized Western
,news agencies, accusing them of play-
ing into the hands of "ideological sabo.
teurs." It said the saboteurs needed Mr.
Agca's charges "to prevent world pub-
lic attention from' focusing on the true
-organizers and inspirers of acts of ter-
rorism, who are closely linked with neo.
fascist circles and the American C.I.A.,
which, as has been proved conclusively,
has sponsored the fabrication about so-
cialist countries' complicity in the as.
sassination attempt on Pope John Paul
II."
Mr. Agca made his accusation while
being returned to his prison, where he is Bulgaria Accuses Far Right
serving a life sentence for the attack on VIENNA, July 9 (Reuters) - The ab-
the Pope. He spoke unexpectedly with
reporters as he emerged ductioa of an Italian girl in an attempt
from police
headquarters, where he had been ques. to obtain freedom for Mehmet Al! Agca
boned about the kidnapping of Erna- "'s probably the work.of the extreme
nuela Orlandi, the 15-year-old daughter right, the official Bulgarian press
of a Vatican employee, on June 22.. agency said today.
Mr. Agca said on Friday that he was
First DireetCharge trained by the Soviet secret service in
A man who telephoned a friend of the Bulgaria and Syria. Bulgaria has re
missing girl claimed to be the abductor ! peatedly denied involvement in the st-
and demanded that Mr. Agca be -re tack.
leased by July 20. He did not say what The Bulgarian dispatch from Rome
would happen. to the girl if Mr. Agca said Italian newspapers think "the at-
was not freed. tempt at releasing the Turkish terrorist
Mr. Agca's statement Fridaywas the Agca is probably coming from his truer{
first by any of the principals in the case accomplices - the extreme-right or-
chargingdirect K.G.B. involvement. ganizations which are afraid of unde-
Haan last November with the arrest or
Sergei Ivanov Antonov, the Rome chief
of the Bulgarian state airline, appar-
ently on information provided by Mr.
Agca. He is still in custody.
Mr. Antonov, two other Bulgarians
and four Turks have been implicated in
the attack on the Pope.
Tass said, "Burgeoning evidence-has
surfaced which, the Bulgarian news
agency has emphasized, shows that the
so-called 'case of Antonov' is a striking'
example of the subversive ideological
activity which is being conducted unin-
terruptedly by Western intelligence and
propaganda services against the coun-.
tries of the socialist community." Tass
did not cite the evidence.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120023-5