ITALIAN JUDGES IN PAPAL PLOT TRIAL KEEP WORKING, EVEN DURING RECESS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505100040-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 40
• Publication Date: September 5, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23 :CIA-RDP90-005528000505100040-8
MTICLE AP REO
ON PACaE
CHRISTIAN. SCIENCE MONITOR
S September 1985
INTERNA~tOIiW.
Italian N~ m P~P~ P~ h~?ralal keep working,
e~ ~,,,,,., .. -
9p~W~ib'RN O1MMWi 9ciN~ MOnlb-
Wasligbn
Though the papal plot trial is formally in recess dur-
ing the t~dibionat Italian summer holidapt presiding
Jr~ge 9eve~rino Santiapichi, Prosecutor Antonio Mariam,
'
and
other court officials have
taken very tittle time~off.
They have used the recess to
boas amaag more than a dozes 'I i~rka, in Europe anti
their homeland, who in o~ way or another have been im-
plicated is the case.
1)uring the first 10 weeks of the home trial, which be-
gan at the end of May, Mehmet Ali Agra, the Pope's cwn-
victed assailant, cited previously-kaowa and new names
in his often confusing testimony.
even during recess
the press, "Omer Ay's evideaoe is serious enough to
change the course of the trial."
After-preliminary interrogation in Istanbul, Marini ar-
ranged for Sedat 3irri Kadem, a man who until now had
figured only oa the dim margins of the case, to be flown
to Rome to confront Agca~. Mr. Kadem claimed to have
le~fCtet politmcai views and acknowledged knowing Agra
as a boyhood fiiead, but denied all involvement in
Agca's criminal acxivities.
On meeting Kade:r: itr linme, Agra declared:- "Yes,
this is Sedat Sirri KadeQr, the fourth 'ltirrk involved in
the attack." IAgca has said that Ay, his boyhood friend
Oral Cetik, and Kadem were with him the day he shot the
Pope.1
Iii replied angrily, "You ors inventing; lies so you
can retract them later: You are. g eves yourself
Odgln of the arfeged pbt disputed with your fabrications."
The murky aspect of Mr. Agca's tEStimorry has raised '~ only thing that clearly. emerged from tGe ensuing
marq qu~ons. What has been his motive? Is he in
saaeY Is he deliberately trying to undermine what he told
Judge Mario Martella in 1983? Has he. somehow been
bought off by the KGB, the Soviet secret Douce, on prom-
ise of av~tual rescue, as some Polish emigres suggest?
Or is the so-catled. Bulgarian connection.a fiction, the in?
vention of SISMI, the Italian intelligence service, work-
yction with the United States Central Intelli
Soviet and B and officials coa?
time to resist a current co n >a a ot,
an~at re~1~81 attain on o n~au 's
e was map y ut arguments eve no
wide cur~ren~~
These-Italian judges are ra fools." dsdar+ee Victor
l'isarro, a Rome lawyer who hoe specialized ~ study of
Bulgarian links to terrrorism in Ita>r '.They would not
have started this trial if they had not felt that they ]rod a
good case and one that rests on move. than Agca's testi-
mony. But they mepr not have reckoned with Agca's the-
atrics, .though they made it easy fan him by giving him
such a prominent role is the first weeks of the
proneedings??
Prosecutor Marini went to Turkey oa July 22 and c~n-
ferred at length with ltirrkish judicial officials who have
lreeu invcived ma the wboie of 'mveetagatr"oas a ~ .
trials of Hnipriffi-suppo:t~eda~'11~ash
rises whp weee linked to ~e?
Mrrrgwetios two agllged~ac+oorrlpioes of Agca, . .
Marini urea inbeerogatad Omer Ay who is impnsoaed
in Elsaig: Ms: Ay's rotes was one of rite first that came
to light as a possible accomplice of Agog iir St. Peter's
Square. After two days of inbert+q;ating Ay, Marini told
hoe not yet become publicly apparent. is
that either Ages or Kadem is lying.
Tndh trnd to get at
`"1,'heoe has been a great deal of lying go-
ing oQ at this trial,,, says a veteran Turkish
journalist,:- "and it is not only by Agra."
This man has no doubt about Agca's sanity.
"Iie is bargaining," he says, "in a des.
Aerate attempt to try to improve his situa-
tion. Ii~+e he is -sentenced to death by
hanging in Turkey and fife imprisonment in
Italy - he feels he has nothing to lose by
emolovina amp tactic that might ease his
~L? Agca's testimony is
Reputed Turkish smuggler wanted in Rome a trill to Rome judges
A man whom both Turks and Italians see as a key fig-
ure in the case remains to be heard from: Bekir Celenk.
He was released by Bulgaria and sent back to Turkey in
early July.
Mr. Ceteak, along with reputed Turkish-mafia godfa-
ther Abuzer Ugurlu and more than 20 alleged accom-
plices, is a defendant in a trial in Ankara, Turkey. New
ehargee that Celerilc supported smuggling, suberversion,
and terrorism have been added to the indictment against
hire. 1~rkmsh legai pries made it impossible for Italian
prosecutor Marini to see him during his recent visit.
"I definitely have to interrogate Bekir Celenk,"
Marini declared on leaving Istanbul in early August. He
said he would r+etura to Turkey in mid-September to
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23 :CIA-RDP90-005528000505100040-8