Istanbul
Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, could be released from prison next year, an Istanbul court said this week. Agca escaped from a Turkish prison in 1979, leaving behind a letter saying he was off to kill the pope. Two years later, he pushed through a crowd of some 20,000 in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, and fired on the Popemobile, hitting the pope four times, twice in the stomach. The pope eventually recovered, and Agca spent nearly 20 years in an Italian jail for the crime. He was transferred to a Turkish prison in 2000 to finish the sentence for his earlier crime, the murder of a Turkish journalist. That offense originally carried a 10-year sentence, but changes to Turkish law reduced the penalty to six years, and Agca, now 46, will be eligible for release in December 2005. The Popemobile now has bulletproof windows.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
How will China’s $1 trillion trade surplus change the world economy?Today’s Big Question Europe may impose its own tariffs
-
‘Autarky and nostalgia aren’t cure-alls’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Japan’s Princess Aiko is a national star. Her fans want even more.IN THE SPOTLIGHT Fresh off her first solo state visit to Laos, Princess Aiko has become the face of a Japanese royal family facing 21st-century obsolescence
