KREMLIN'S ROLE AT HEART OF UPCOMING TRIAL IN '81 PLOT TO KILL POPE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505100086-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 86
• Publication Date: May 24, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23 :CIA-RDP90-005528000505100086-8
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BALTIMORE SUN
24 May 1985
Kremlin's role at heart of upcoming trial
in '81 plot to kill pope
ROME (Reuter) - When eight
Bulgarians and Turks go on trial
Monday charged with taking part in
a plot to assassinate Pope John Paul
Il in.1981, the burning question will
be: Was the Kremlin behind the
shootingP
This is the inevitable implication
of the indictment of two former offi-
cials of the Bulgarian Embassy in
Rome and a Bulgarian airline em-
ployee, along with five Turks alleged-
ly linked with an extreme right-wing
guerrWa group in Turkey.
Only one Bulgarian - Sergei 1.
Antonov, deputy director for Italy of
the Bulgarian airline F3alkanair -
and three Turks are being held in
Italy. The other four defendants left
the country before they were charged
and will be tried in their absence.
The prosecution case in what Ital-
ian newspapers are caWng the trial
of the century hinges on the evidence
d' Mehmet All Agra, 27, a Turk al-
ready serving a We sentence In Italy
for shooting and seriously- inJuring
the' pope In St. Peter's Square May
13, 1981.
Agra, arrested at the scene, was
tried and sentenced within two
months. Fie wW be to the dock once
again In the trial next week, this time
on charges of smuggling a Browtring
pistol into Italy as part of the alleged
plot. ,
Of the other defendants, Mr. An-
tonov, 36, is said to have organized
the Rome end of the plot along with
Todor Ayvazov, former treasurer at
,the Bulgarian Embassy here, and
IV[aJ. Zhelyo K. Vassilev, a former
military attache. Both diplomat's
have returned to Bulgaria. '
Also in Bulgaria is Beklr Celenk, a
Turkish businessman alleged to
have organiied the financing of the
attack:
The fourth absentee is Oral Celik,
Agca's alleged backup man, a Turk
who the indictment says was in St.
Peter's Square when the pope was
shot but who has not been seen
since.
In court with Agcy and Mr. Anto-
nov wW be two more Turks, Omer
Bagci, 39, said to have given Agca
the pistol used in the shooting, and
Musa Sendar Celebi, 33, alleged to
have acted as a go-between. Mr.
Bagci was extradited to Italy from
Switzerland, and Mr. Celebi from
West Germany.
For abaft a year after his arrest,
Agcy insisted that he had acted
alone, as a Muslim mWtant out to
murder a champion of Christianity.
Then, _ in a stream of startling
revelations to magistrates and the
press, he implicated those who are
now his codefendants as well as oth-
ers in a complex international Don-~
Among other thinks
Y
vice ents and the Soviet security
ce, e
e a m tong that Agca has
changed his story, Italian magis-
trates say they have found evidence
to corroborate his accounts of meet-
- logs with Bulgarians and are con-
vinced there was an international
plot. ~ '
Antonio Albano, Rome's deputy
public prosecutor, said in a report
last year that the East bloc saw the
Polish-born pontiff' as "a mortal dan-
ggeerr because of his moral authority
F`or '.leaders of Solidarity. the now-
banned Pbllsh free trade union that
was powerful at the time.
"In some secret place ... some
politician of great power ... in con-
formity with the Wtal higher inter-
ests of the Eastern bloc, arrived at
the decision that it was necessary to
kill Karol Wojtyla (the popeJ," Mr. A1=
banorwrote.
In his indictment committing the
eight Bulgarians and Turks for trial.
investigating magistrate Mario Mar-
cella described Agca as "a pawn in a.
vast plot put together to assassinate
tl{e pope" but avoided direct political
accusations.
He branded the murder plot "a
real act of war against the most au-
thentic lasting values of the civilized
world."
Sofia and Moscow have flatly de-
nied any Bulgarian role in the attack,
and Mr. Antonov has protested his
innocence ever since his arrest in
November, 1982. .
Pointing to a visit received in
em r, 1981, from two I an se-.
cre service men, a Ian ana
Soviet state news agencies charged
~iaf Wes~in~e~igenee~pu Film up
'f" -hTs ega ons sc e
ommunis Doan rF ice.
e~~ve c med that the
"GrayWolves" ii~itist srrou~
w e Turkish defendants al-
eaf are as tles~fi tTie
n n e ence enc , n
~`fw ffi~f a ern oc.
e eld in a fortified ,
bunker made from a converted gym-
nasium neaz Rome's Olympic stadi-
um, which was used for the trial of
the Red Brigade guerrillas who kid-
napped and murdered Italian states-
man Aldo Moro in 1978.
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