TRIAL ON POPE'S SHOOTING REACHES DECISIVE PHASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505100015-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: February 3, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505100015-6
ARTICLE APPEARED NEW YORK TIMES
ON PAGE --- 3 February 1986
Trial on Pope's Shooting
Reaches Decisive Phase
ROME, Feb. 2 - The eight-month-
old trial of seven men accused of con-
spiring to assassinate Pope John Paul
II in 1981 moved into its decisive stage
this week, presenting the court with an
array of difficult decisions.
Using interpreters, the court of two'
judges es and. six jurors has. cross-exam-
ined..witnesses and defendants in at'
least five languages and traveled to six
countries, including Bulgaria, to ques-
tiot}, others.
But in the view of courtroom observ-
era?the prosecution's case has been se-
verely weakened by the often contra.
dictory testimony of its chief witness,
Mehmet Ali Agca, the Pope's convicted
assailant. What little credibility he
had, the observers say, was largely
shattered by his bizarre public declara-
tions, particularly his repeated asser-
tions that he is Jesus Christ.
The 28-year-old Turk never budged
under hours of cross-examination from
his basic contention that the Bulgar-
ian4 paid him and other Turks the
equivalent of $1.2 million to kill the Pol
ish,born Pope. According to Mr. Agca,
the attempt on John Paul's life was a
Soviet-bloc effort to quiet a resurgence
of :religious sentiment in Eastern Eu-
rope that followed the Pope's election,
and; to dampen resistance to Commu-
nist rule in his homeland.
Question of 3 Bulgarians
But the key question facing the pub-
lic., prosecutor, Antonio Marini, when
he begins his final plea this week is
wlkether to seek the conviction of three
Bulgarian citizens, two of them being
tried in absentia, for their suspected
role in the Pope's shooting.
government and court officials say
the decision will be based solely on the
mlrrits of the case. But a conviction of
the three Bulgarians would be very
awkward for Italy, which is seeking to
promote the thaw in Bast-West rela-
titftts at a time of foreign policy compli-
cations in other areas, such as the
Mfiterranean basin.
The three Bulgarians are Sergei Iva-
nOv Antonov, now 37, the former Rome
station chief of the Bulgarian state air-
lihe and the only one of the three in Ital-
iar} custody, and two former diplomats,
Tdslor S. Aivasov, 42, and Lieut. Col.
Zhelyo K. Vasilev, 44, whom Bulgaria
refbsed to extradite after they returned
hothe.
Mr. Marini has kept his intentions se-
cret, but even an acquittal poses poten-
tial difficulties. Italian courts can con-
vict ?a defendant, declare him innocent
or declare the person acquitted "for
lack of proof" if it cannot decide the
relative merit of evidence pointing to
66Th innocence and guilt. Most court
observers feel that the prosecution will
recommend acquittal for lack of evi-
dence.
e Such a move, they say, would have
Pace-saving merit fQr Italian judicial
jirocedure, which was evidently un-
able, despite five years of investiga-
tion, to confirm Mr. Agca's often con-
tradictory claims. At the same time, it
would pave the way for the release of
Mr. Antonov, who has been in Italian
custody for more than three years.
Bulgarian officials, however, say
they want a full declaration of the Bul-
garian defendants' innocence and
would appeal anything less to a higher
court. A declaration of innocence, in
turn, could lead to subsequent charges'
against Mr. Agca for false testimony.
There was no indication what verdict
the prosecution would recommend for
the four Turks,
In October, a mysterious defendant
in the case, Bekir Celenk, died of heart
failure in a military prison near Anka-
ra, Turkey. Mr. Celenk, 51, a reputed
Turkish underworld leader, fled to Bul-
garia in 1982 after Mr. Agca implicated
him in a supposed conspiracy. Mr.
Agca said Mr. Celenk had been his link
with the Bulgarian secret services,
meeting with him in a Sofia hotel in
1980 and channeling, or promising, $1.2
million for the assasination of the
Pope. The court hoped it could glean
useful information from Mr. Celenk,
but he died in several weeks after he
was unexpectedly allowed to. return to
his native Turkey from Bulgaria.
Whether Mr. Agca will face subse-
quent charges of false testimony hinges
largely on whether the court accepts
the . contention, renewed during the
trial, that Western intelligence agen-
cies somehow coached him to impli-
cate Bulgaria.
Mobster Testifies
In June, a convicted Naples mobster
turned state's witness, Giovanni Pandi-
co, testified that he had been involved
in meetings of Italian intelligence offi-
cials and Mr. Agca in the prison where
the Turk was confined.
Bulgarian officials had long contend-
ed, with the support of their Soviet bloc
allies, that the investigation and trial
were Western plots to smear Commu-
nism.
Mr. Pandico's charges were denied
by all the people he implicated, includ-
ing former secret service officials and
members of the prison staff, and he
was unable to substantiate them under
cross-examination.' But the charge was
kept alive when a former Italian secret
service official, in jail in New York, re-
peated them.
The official, Francesco Pazienza,
who was jailed last year and is await-
ing extradition to Italy, said intelli-
gence officials sought to enlist him in, a
plot to use Mr. Agca against the Bul-
garians. Mr. Pazienza was questioned
in New York by an Italian magistrate,
and the interrogation transcripts were
entered into the court record. But he
often altered his account, and the court
decided against sending one of its own
officials to New York to hear him.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505100015-6