Greater Turkish role suggested

Press, 1 June 1985, Page 10

Greater Turkish role suggested

NZPA-Reuter R ome Early evidence in the trial of eight men accused of plotting to kill the Pope suggest a Turkish neofascist group called Grey Wolves played a greater role in the alleged conspiracy than was originally supposed. Up to four more Turks could face charges on the basis of testimony at Rome Assize Court this week by their compatriot, Omer Bagci, aged 39, who admits he delivered the gun Mehmet Ali.Agca used to shoot Pope John Paul in May, 1981. Bagci, has identified two sympathisers of the Grey Wolves, to which Agca once belonged, as probably linked with him in the plot against the Pope. But four days of questioning by the Court’s president, Judge Severino Santiapichi, often hampered by language and acoustics problems, failed to shed any new light on an alleged Bulgarian connection with the plot. An Investigating Magistrate, Ilario Martella, sent Agca, Bagci, three other Turks and three Bulgarians for trial, accusing them of forming a conspiracy to murder the Pope. The Assize Court judges and six jurors must evalutate Mr Martella’s several thousand pages of signed testimony, as well as the defendants’ own statements in court, when they weigh the merits of the case. If it were not for this, Agca’s religious ravings during the first two days of the trial might have seriously undermined the credibility of the prosecution’s argument. Lawyers said that Agca’s outbursts had cast doubt on his state of mind and credibility as a witness, but did not affect the circumstantial case against the Bulgarians, Sergei Antonov, Zhelyo Vassilev, and Todor Aivazov. Under Italian law a defendant can be convicted on circumstantial evidence. The prosecution says Agca’s copious if erratic statements to Mr Martella amount to a strong case of conspiracy by the three East Europeans.