SOVIET DENIES AGCA CHARGE ON POPE PLOT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100090002-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 18, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: July 10, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP9O-00552ROO0100090002-1
r'?. _ I AP SEARED NEW YORK TI1,mS
OK ?J-.S7_ Q-3 10 Juiy 1983
Soviet Denies Agca. Charge? on -Pope Plot
MOSCOW, July 9 (AP) -Reacting to Mr. Agca made his accusation while
the assertion being returned to his prison, where he is Bulgaria Accuses Far Rkght
by Mehmet All Agca on serving a life sentence for the attack on
(Friday that K.G.B. agents were in. the Pope. Be spoke unexpectedly with duction of an VIENNA, July S (Reuters) - The ab.
II, lthe Soviet Union today~called the ac- as he emerged from police in an att
~
to obtain freedom for girl hmet Ali AAggca
quartets, where be had been ques-
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 A man who telephoned a friend of the Bulgaria and Syria. Bulgaria has r+m
?
answers to reporters' questions on Fri- missing girl claimed to be the abductor peatedly denied involvement in the at-
day after being questioned by the police and demanded that Mr. Agca be re- ~. .
in another case. leased by July 20. He did not say what The Bulgarian dispatch from Rome
The official press agency Tess said would happen ,to the girl If Mr. Agca said Italian newspapers think "the at.
that charges of Soviet bloc involvement
were "nothing more than absurd insinu-
ations." It did not say what evidence it
meant. The Soviet Union came under suspi.
Tass mentioned Mr. Agee's state- cion last November with the arrest of
meat 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."
Tars 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.
Agee'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 Deo-
fascist circles and the American C.I.A.,
which, as has been proved conclusively,
has sponsored the fabrication about so-
cialist camtnes' complicity in the as-
sassination attempt on Pope John Paul
II."
tioned about the kidnapping of Ems. 1"1b probably the work of the extreme
nuela Orlandi, the 5-year-old daughter right, the official Bulgarian press
of a Vatican employee, an June 22.. j agency said today.
L
f
was not freed. tempt at releasing the Turkish terr'Orist
Mr. Agca's statement Friday was the Agca is probably coming tram his true'
first by any of the principals in the case accomplices - the ezuewe-right or.
charging direct K.G.B. involvement. ganimtiom which are afraid of undo-
Sergei Ivanov Antonov, the Rome chief
of the Bulgarian state airline, appar.
early 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 Dews
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 coon.
tries of the socialist community." Tass
did not cite the evidence.
Y
r. Asca sand on Friday that he was
That Direct Charge trained by the Soviet secret service in
sired revelations" by him.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP9O-00552ROO0100090002-1