THE POPE PLOT GOES TO TRIAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605740069-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 18, 2012
• Sequence Number: 69
• Publication Date: June 3, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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D_e_ cl_a_s_sified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/18 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605740069-8
~- 3 June 1985
ITALY
The Pope Plot Goes to T
or more than four years the Turk who
tried to kill Pope John Pau] II has been
polishing his story, addirig and changing the
details. Starting this week the adventures of
Mehmet Ali Agca will unfold in an Italian
court. The occasion is the trial of three
Bulgarians and four Turks accused of help-
ing Agca. in a plot allegedly hatched by .
the Bulgarian government-and by impli-
cationthe Soviet KGB. Inevitabl}', the Ital-
ian press has dubbed it "the trial of the.
century." Judging by the passions and po-
litical tensions the case is sure to arouse,
the spectacle in the courtroom of Judge
Severino Santiapichi may al-
most justify the cliche.
The best. weapon for the`!
defense may be Agca himself.
Last February, when the Turk-
ish terrorist appeared in a tel-
evised interview, most viewers
were turned-off by his feverish,
compulsive style. Last week
prosecutors openly worried.
about hoa~ well Agca would .
hold up under .cross-examina-
tion. "He may have some sur-
ecution with a largely circumstantial case.
Perhaps the most important defendant
is Sergei Ivanov Antonov, a former Bulgar-
ian airline representative who was charged
last vear with waiting in a car outside St.
Peter's Square in Rome to help Agca escape
after the shooting. Two other Bulgarians,
both former employees of the embassy in
Rome, will be tried in absentia, as will at
least one Turk, Bekir Celenk, who is still
in Bulgaria. Two Turkish defendants have
already admitted having helped Agca;
they remain in Italian custody. The trial will
takeplacein theconverted, bunkerlikegym-
nasium-equipped with steel
cages for the defendants, bullet-
proofglass and watchtowers-
where the terrorists convicted
of killing Italy's former Prime
Minister Aldo Moro received
their life sentences.
Defamation? While the .jury
was being selecied last week,
.the defense-was waging a vig-
orousbattle in the press. Chris-
tian Roulette, a French author,.
and Roberto Napoleone, his
Italian publisher, held a news
prises for us," said chief pros- Antonor: A key role?
ecutor Antonio Marini. "I
hope they'll be positive ones.'.' NEWSWEEF:
has learned that defense lawyers plan to
attack Agca's credibilit}' by suggesting he~
was coached by investigators for the pros-
ecution torecognize the pictures of the three
accused Bulgarians in .a loose-leaf binder
containing photos of 56 men. The defense
will certainly make much of the fact that
Agca claimed to have recognized a m ug shot
of Ivan- Dontchev, chief of a Bulgarian spy
ring in Italy. In fact, Agca later admitted, he
conference to publicize the
Italian edition of a 290-page book claim-
ingthat Agca was working exclusively for a
right-wing terrorist organization, the Gray
Wolves. The book was particularly critical
of Claire Sterling, the American journalist
who popularized the notion of a Bulgar-
ian plot. Sterling announced she was stiing
Roulette and Napoleone for defamation
of character.
The Soviets probably will attempt to dis-
credit the trial as well. Last March they
had never even met Dontchev. Unless new trotted out Oleg Bitov, a newspaper editor
evidence is revealed at the trial, a weak who returned to Moscow last year after
performance by Agca could leave the pros- . having defected to Britain. Bitov claimed
that he had been kidnapped by Western
agents who attempted to make him testify
against Antonov at the trial. He calledthe
entire affair "a villainous provocation or-
eanized bvthe C1A."But asthe prosecution
and defense spin out their cases, it may just
become possible to determine who .really
organized the plot to kill the pope.
HARRY' ANDERSON with THEODORE STANGER
in Rome
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/18 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605740069-8