Attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II

The assassination attempt of the Pope John Paul II took place on Wednesday, May 13, 1981, in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican City. Mehmet Ali Ağca shot the Pope four times as he entered the square. The Pope lost significant blood due to the gunfire and had to be hospitalized. 

Agca was immediately arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment by an Italian court. The Pope later pardoned Agca for attempting to assassinate him. Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi pardoned Agca at the Pope's request, after which he was deported to Türkiye in June 2000.

Attempted assassination

In August 1980, under the pseudonym Vilperi, Agca began traveling around the Mediterranean region, changing his passport and identity several times, perhaps to avoid revealing his origin: Sofia, Bulgaria. 

He entered Rome on May 10, 1981, on a train from Milan. According to Agca's later testimony, in Rome he met three accomplices: a fellow Turk and two Bulgarians. The operation was led by Zilo Vassilev, a Bulgarian soldier living in Italy. 

According to Vassilev, the mission had been entrusted to him by Turkish mobster Bekir Çelenk in Bulgaria. According to Agca, the plan was for him and gunman Oral Çelik to open fire on the Pope in St. Peter's Square and then escape to the Bulgarian embassy, taking advantage of the panic generated by a small explosion.

On May 13, they sat in the square writing postcards while waiting for the Pope's arrival. As the Pope passed by, Ağca shot him several times with a Browning Hi-Power 9 mm semi-automatic pistol, generating deafening applause from the audience in St. Peter's Square. 

Several witnesses (including a nun and two cardinals) prevented him from firing more shots or from escaping. He was caught by Camillo Cibin, the head of security for the Vatican City Gendarmerie. John Paul II was hit by four bullets, two of which lodged in his stomach, another in his right arm, and the last in his left hand.

The Pope was taken to the Apostolic Palace for an initial diagnosis, as the wound did not appear serious on the outside. But once his pulse and blood pressure were measured, it was clear that the Pope was in danger, and an ambulance was called. Although the bullet had missed both the abdominal aorta and the mesenteric artery, John Paul II lost nearly 75% of his blood, suffering shock from exsanguination due to the intestinal perforation.

John Paul II underwent nearly six hours of emergency intestinal surgery, which required transfusions and a temporary colostomy that later had to be undone. When he was with the Pope in Rome's Rebibbia prison the first time after his attempt, Agca asked him how he had managed to survive. 

The Pope, who had been conscious until the moment he entered the operating room, sensed that he would survive, believing wholeheartedly in the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Fatima (who, in one of her apparitions to the three children, had prophesied that a "Bishop in white" would be attacked).
Agca's imprisonment

Ağca was sentenced in July 1981 to life imprisonment in Italy for the attempted murder, but was pardoned by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in June 2000 at the request of the Pope. Agca was extradited to Turkey, where he was imprisoned for the murder of leftist journalist Abdi İpekçi in 1979 and two bank robberies in the 1970s.

Despite a request for his release in November 2004, a Turkish court ruled that he would not be eligible for parole until 2010. But on 12 January 2006, a Turkish court authorized his release. However, on 20 January 2006, the Turkish Supreme Court ruled that the time he had spent imprisoned in Italy could not be deducted from his Turkish sentence. 

For this reason he was arrested and imprisoned again. Ağca was released on 18 January 2010, after almost 29 years behind bars.

References

Category:Catholicism
Category:1981 crimes
Category:1981 in Europe
Category:Failed assassination attempts