ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The gunman who wounded Pope John Paul II says he will answer questions about the 1981 attack after he is released from prison next week.
Little is known about what led Mehmet Ali Agca to shoot at the pope while he was greeting the faithful in St. Peter’s Square, but rumors have swirled about whether Bulgaria and the Soviet KGB might have conspired to kill the Polish-born pontiff.
Agca says in a letter given to reporters Wednesday “I will answer to all of these questions in the next weeks.”
The pope met and forgave Agca in 1983 while the gunman was serving a 19-year sentence in an Italian prison. On Monday, Agca ends another 10-year prison sentence for killing a Turkish journalist in 1979.
