The imminent release of John Paul II's would-be assassin from a Turkish jail has rekindled hopes in Italy that some of the mysteries connected to the incident in 1981 may be cleared up.
An Italian judge who investigated the murder attempt by Mehmet Ali Agca called on the 48-year-old Turk to take his freedom as an opportunity to reveal the background to the shooting once and for all.
"Since he will no longer be in detention, now is the best moment for Ali Agca to say what really happened, providing a real contribution supported by concrete evidence," Rosario Priore said.
Agca's lawyer told Ansa in Ankara that his client will be released from Kartal high security jail at noon on Thursday.
Priore, who is now head of Italy's juvenile justice department, recalled that Agca initially claimed he had acted alone but later said he had been commissioned by secret services in the then Communist Eastern Europe. He then retracted this version too, leaving investigators and the rest of the world none the wiser.
At a 1986 trial, prosecutors failed to prove charges that Bulgarian secret services had hired Agca to kill the Pope on behalf of the Soviet Union. Three Turks and three Bulgarians charged with conspiring along with Agca were acquitted for lack of sufficient
evidence.
But many in Italy remain convinced that the assassination attempt was planned in Moscow.
A parliamentary commission studying a dossier left behind by former KGB archivist Vladimir Mitrokhin has found evidence to this effect, according to one of its members.
"The Commission now has the proof. Agca acted for the Soviets. The chain of command reached back not to the KGB, but to the Soviet military secret services," said Enzo Fragala, an MP with the right-wing National Alliance. A second mystery apparently connected to the papal assassination attempt is the disappearance in 1983 of Emanuela Orlandi, the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee.
There were theories at the time that the girl, who was never seen again, was abducted in order to pressure Italy into releasing the Turkish gunman from prison. Ferdinando Imposimato, another former judge involved in the early enquiries, has said Agca should now be interrogated about the disappearance of the girl,
"Agca knows who kidnapped Emanuela Orlandi in order to obtain the release of the pope's attacker," he said.
