Moscow denies Agca claims

Press, 11 July 1983, Page 10

Moscow denies Agca claims

NZPA Moscow The Kremlin yesterday denied Mehmet Ali Agca’s assertions that K.G.B. agents had trained him to attack the Pope, calling the allegations “threadbare propaganda” and “nothing more than absurd insinuations.”

Bulgaria also denied Agca’s accusations that its agents had also been part of the plot. The Soviet news agency, Tass, said that Italian investigation of previous allegations of Bulgarian complicity “has shown that there are absolutely no facts to bear out, directly or indirectly, the socialist countries’ complicity in the heinous crime.” Tass accused Western news agencies of playing into the hands of “ideologi-

cal saboteurs” who, “need this (reports of Agca’s assertions) to prevent world public attention from focusing on the true organisers and inspirers of acts of terrorism, who are closely linked with neo-fascist circles and the American C.I.A. which, as has been proved conclusively, has sponsored the fabrication about socialist countries’ complicity in the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.”

Agca made the allegation in Rome on Saturday while being returned to prison, where he is serving a life sentence for the attack.

A Rome teen-age girl is missing. People who say that they have kidnapped her have told the police they will free her only when Agca is released.