Today.Az » World news » Turkey declares Agca as unfit for military services
19 January 2010 [11:33] - Today.Az
A military hospital in Turkey declared Agca as unfit for military services.
Lawyer of Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, says a military hospital in Turkey declared him as unfit for military services hours after Agca was released from prison after more than 29 years behind bars.
Gokay Caglaralp, Agca's lawyer, said Monday that a board of doctors with the Department at the Gulhane Military Hospital in Ankara, issued a medical report declaring the pope gunman as unfit for the compulsory military services.
Agca assassinated Ipekci, editor-in-chief of the Milliyet, near his house in Istanbul on February 1, 1979. He fled from prison a few months later, and reappeared in Rome, Italy, on May 13, 1981, when he shot Pope John Paul II while he was greeting the faithful in St. Peter's Square. Agca was arrested a few minutes after the attack.
John Paul met with Agca in Italy's Rebibbia prison in 1983 and Italy pardoned him for the shooting.
Agca was pardoned in 2000 and returned to Turkey where he was immediately re-arrested and given a ten-year prison sentence for murdering Ipekci.
/World Bulletin/
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