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Pope's attacker back in jail
21/01/2006 09:48 - (SA)
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| Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca, surrounded by journalists and plainclothes policemen, shouts as he arrives at police headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey. (Osman Orsal, AP) |
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Ankara - The Turkish man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 returned to prison after an appeals court ruled that he should serve more time for the killing of a Turkish journalist and other crimes.
Mehmet Ali Agca did not resist arrest Friday when police knocked on his Istanbul apartment door following the court's ruling.
"I was waiting for you," he told the officers, according to private NTV television.
He was driven to Kartal prison, the same Istanbul lockup that he was released from eight days ago. He is expected to serve several more years.
The panel of appeals court judges overturned a lower court's ruling that set Agca free on January 12. He had served 19 years in an Italian prison for the 1981 attack on the pope and then another 5 years of a 10-year sentence in Turkey for murdering Turkish journalist Abdi Ipekci in 1979.
In ordering his release, the lower court counted the time served in Italy and said Agca had fulfilled his sentence, outraging many Turks. Justice Minister Cemil Cicek asked the court to review the case, and the judges ruled unanimously Friday that Agca go back to prison and serve more time.
"There is no legal basis to deduct Agca's time in Italy from his prison terms he received in Turkey," the court said.
Before being taken back to prison, Agca was brought to police headquarters in Istanbul, where he was seen handcuffed and yelling in English, Turkish and Italian.
"I declare myself Messiah. I am not the son of God, I am Messiah," shouted Agca, who is known for such outbursts.
'We're respectful of all decisions'
Earlier, Agca's lawyer, Mustafa Demirbag, said: "We're respectful of all decisions by Turkish courts." After his client's detention, he said, "The media won, the law lost."
A local prosecutor was to decide on how many more years Agca should serve. Reports have suggested he could be imprisoned until 2014.
Cicek had argued that Agca should serve a full 10-year sentence for killing Ipekci. He suggested the sentence should be counted from June 14 2000, when Agca was extradited to Turkey from Italy.
Agca has also been convicted in a soda factory robbery and for stealing a vehicle in 1979, and could be ordered to serve an additional four years for each of those crimes.
Agca initially was sentenced to death for Ipekci's murder, but a 1991 amnesty commuted that sentence to 10 years. In 2000, a court convicted him of the other crimes - the factory robbery and the vehicle theft - and sentenced him to 36 years. Another court then ruled he could not serve more than 36 years, which is considered as life in prison, in total for all his crimes.
A second amnesty in 2000 deducted 10 years from his time, but the appeals court Friday ruled that deduction was invalid.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Justice Ministry had "fulfilled its responsibility."
In 1979, Agca escaped from a military prison in Turkey after serving just five months.
- AP
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