ITALIAN COURTS SEIZE RECORDS OF BULGARIAN OFFICE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505130028-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: December 10, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505130028-9
WASHINGTON POST
10 DFCFI\'BFP 1982
~(1j1(111 Cott rt.s
.Sei_ze Recoril.~ of
Bulgaria1I1 Dance
By Sari Gilber
ROME. Dec. 9-Italian magis-
trates have confiscated records of
the Bulgarian national airline office
here on suspicion that it N vas a cover
fOt intetiigence aozivities. Judicial
c( ..rce said iodav. Tor act- on came
as he . ra`:.:ing policE . u:. con-
firmed newspaper reports that the
g'.:nnan o r ch(, P. jc .Ion:. li
told interr, _ator~ toga B?.;icarian
agents. inciudinr the head of the
airline o:tlce. helped plan the attack.
In a separate development. the
Bu garian news agency reported that
police in Bulgaria have detained
Beki- Celenk. a Turk. charged by
Italian macis:ra,es with complicity
he May shooting of the
pope.
Ceienk, an alleged smuggler. is
said to have _--ranged meetings be-
tween Bulgarian officials and Tur-
kish gunman Mehmet Ail Agca. and
to have offered Agca 3 million West
German marks -about '1.25 milhoni
the pope.
The Bulgarian agency also sharply
denied that Bulgaria was involved in
-y p'.o: the pond:' ife.
Bulgaria. one of the Soviet L i-non*S
most loyal allies. is suspected h,:v-
ing plotted to kill John Paul because
of the Kremlin's irritation with his
support for the independent. trade
union Solidarity in his native Po-
land.
The head of the Balkan Air office
in Rome, Sergei Ivanov Antonov,
was arrested Nov. 25 on suspicion of
"active complicity" in the shooting in
St. Peter's Square.
Examining magistrate Ferdinando
Imposimato ordered confiscation of
the airline office's books after an
Italian trade unionist jailed on spy-
ing and terrorism charges confessed
to having had active contacts with
several Bulgarian officials, according
to reports in all of Italy's leading
newspa )ers.
The reported confession of left-
wing unionist Luigi Scricciolo pro-
yided no new details about the at-
ternnted assassination of the pope
but focused new ,',ten-Lion on Bul-
garian activities here.
Scricciolo is facing charges of es-
pionage. terrorism and c ,.,.pl?,cii~ in
the kidnaping last year of U.S. Brig.
Gen. James L. Dozier by the Red
Brigades urban guerrilla group. Two
Red Brigades members have testi-
fied that the Bulgarians sought to
provide help in that kidnaping.
The senior police source said that
reports appearing yesterday in sev-
eral Italian newspapers. which de-
scribed how Antonov and Bulgarian
Embassy cashier Teodorov A}vazov
allegedly participated in planning
the attack on the pope, "appeared to
be more or less correct." -
But the press accounts; clearly
leaked by a single unidentified
source, caused considerable skepti-
cism, in political and journalistic cir-
cles. The repol?t that a Bulgarian of-
ficial had trudged tc St. Peter's
Square with a hand grenade in his
attache case aroused amazement.
The newspaper reports said the
description of the Bulgarian agents'
roles had been provided by Agca, the
Turk now serving a rife sentence it;
an Italian jail for wounding the pope
and two American tourists standing
nearby in the square.
The arrest of Celink in Bulgaria
could be an attemrn to shov.w that
the East European nation was coop-
erating with Italy in the investiga-
tion. It also appeared possible. how-
ever, that Bulgaria hoped to gain le-
verage with Rome in seeking the re-
turn to Bulgaria of Antonov. The
Bulgarian news agency reaffirmed its
government's position that the air-
line. office chief was innocent and
should be released.
The arrest of Antonov and
charges that two other Bulgarians
were involved in the assassination
attempt already have drawn sharp
diplomatic criticism from Bulgaria.
An Italian Foreign Ministry offi-
cial confirmed that the ministry had
asked the Bulgarian government to
rev -:e t C:p10 atr prid reties of
- vvazov. cu-r entry "on hc,..aav in
Bulgaria. The official said that the
Bulgarian government had refused,
however, saying that evidence of his
guilt was not sufficient.
The Italian official added that no
further diplomatic action against
Bulgaria had yet been considered.
despite the country's implication in
the assassination attempt, the spying
case. and a drugs-for-arms investi-
gation in northern Italy. The min-
istry had not yet received official
communication from the Italian
magistrate's office regarding most of
the facts in the latest press reports,
he said.
The confiscation of the Balkan
airline office's books came after the
arrested Italian unionist Scricciolo
admitted that he regularly used
Balkan Air Lines flighty whenever he
traveled abroad in his job as a trade
union representative, judicial sources
said.
According to press reports today,
Scricciolo after several months in jail
now has named four Bulgarian of-
ficials with whom he had contacts.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505130028-9