DEFENSE SAYS ITALIAN POLICE COACHED AGCA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505100063-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 63
• Publication Date: June 18, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505100063-3
ART FAGZ.
ON PAGb ?
WASHINGTON POST
18 June 1985
Defense Says
Italian Police
Coached Agca
By Sari Gilbert
Special to The Washington Post
ROME, June 17-Defense law-'
yers for three Bulgarians charged
with complicity in the May 1981
attempt to kill Pope John Paul II
asked the court today to subpoena a
'Neapolitan an ster who claims
Italian intelligence agents con-
vinced papal assailant Mehmet i
ca to implicate Bulgaria deliber-
ately.
The request for the subpoena of
Giovanni Pandico, an informer who
has been testifying at a Naples trial
of suspected members of the "Ca-
morra," the Neapolitan underworld,
was made by Manfredo Rossi, law-
yer for Agca's Bulgarian and Tur-
kish alleged accomplices in the at-
tack on the pope. Pandico made the
statements regarding Agca to the
Italian weekly, Espresso.
The eight-member tribunal head-
ed by Magistrate Severino San-
tiapichi ruled that it would consider
the request later.
The bulk of today's session, the
13th since the trial opened here
May 27, was dedicated to an exam-
ination of films and photographs of
the pope's shooting in St. Peter's I
square May 13, 1981. Judge San-
tiapichi questioned Agca extensive-
ly about the alleged second Turkish
assassin, fugitive Oral Celik.
Pandico claims that in March
1982 a top Italian intelligence of-
ficer now on trial for unauthorized
intelligence activities, had offered
the Camorra protection for under-
ground leader Rafaele Cutolo in
return for convincing A ca to help
implicate officials from Bulgaria and
the Soviet Union.
At the time, Cutolo and Pandico
were imprisoned in the Ascoli Pi-
ceno jail where Agca was serving a
life sentence for attempting to kill
the pope.
For many months after his arrest
and sentencing, Agca insisted he
had acted alone in trying to murder
the pope. Records show he was in-
terviewed by two secret service
officers in December 1981 and be-
gan cooperating with Investigating
Magistrate llario Martella in May
1982.
But according to Pandico, Agca
changed his mind because of prom-
ises of help in getting out of prison.
Today in Naples, Pandico, whose
mother was murdered in a vendetta
bombing two weeks ago, added that
Agca also had been promised a job
as a Camorra killer.
The lawyer for the Bulgarian Air-
lines official charged in the case
said discrepancies in Agca's testi-
mony had led defense attorneys to
believe Agca had been coached.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505100063-3