Lawyers say evidence clears Antonov

Press, 31 March 1983, Page 6

Lawyers say evidence clears Antonov

NZPA-Reuter Rome Lawyers for a Bulgarian, Sergei Antonov, detained in Rome for suspected complicity in the 1981 shooting of Pope John Paul 11, produced evidence yesterday which they said proved the case against him was unfounded. At a press conference in the Bulgarian Embassy in Rome, the lawyers displayed a photocopy of the register from a Yugoslav hotel showing that Antonov’s wife, Rossitza, stayed there on the night of May 8, 1981, five days before the Pope was shot. According to Italian press reports which have not been denied by the magistrature, a Turkish gunman, Mehmet All Agca, who is serving a

life sentence for shooting the Pope, told magistrates that he met Rossitza in Antonov’s Rome flat at a meeting on May 10 which worked out plans for the attempted assassination. Two lawyers, Giuseppe Consolo and Adolfo Larussa, said that Rossitza had left Italy via Trieste on May 8, stayed that night at the hotel in Nova Gradiska, 97km south-east of Zagreb, and then entered Bulgaria on May 9. “She was not in Rome on May 10. We have proof that Agca lied. What value therefore has his testimony?” said Mr Consolo. Italian judicial officials have made clear that the case against Antonov, held since November 25 last year, was based largely on

testimony by Agca. No formal charges have been made against Antonov. Mr consolo said that he had a letter from the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry confirming the authenticity of the hotel register. He also produced a copy of Mrs Antonov's visitor’s permit in Italy Which apparently expired on May 9,1M1. "I am sure that Antonov did not meet Agca,” said Mr Consolo. “If he lied for the tenth (of May meeting), his credibility is completely destroyed.” He said that he would submit the information from the Yugoslav authorities to an investigating magistrate, Ilario Martella. Mr Martella has been leading inquiries into the shooting of the Pope.