SOVIET CHALLENGES POPE PLOT CHARGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505100085-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 85
• Publication Date: May 25, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23 :CIA-RDP90-005528000505100085-9
p,RT1~'t~ A:'~ ~.;&~D NEW YORK TIMES
('~' F A "E_ _ _ _ _~~_ 25 May > 1985
~SO~IET C~ALLENG~E
POPE PLOT CH~E~E.
By SETH MYDANS
Spepal to TM New York Tunes
MOSCOW, May 24 -The Soviet
Union announced today that it had
The newspaper said the allegation
that he conspired with Bulgarian
agents was a "provocation cooked up
by the Western secret services" and
added that "there is nothing astonish-
ing" In his reported ?travels through
Bulgaria. `Hundreds of thousands of
Turkish citizens do that," Izvestia said.
The newspaper said. it seemed
.strange that 1VIr. Agca had traveled
freely in )rely even though. the interne-
tional police network lnterpoi had dis-
tributed his photograph. It hinted at a
Vatican connection in -his actions.
"The view is widespread among'
'Turkish journalists in Rome that there
'were people among the Vatican top
crust who had a stake in the physical
`removal of Pope J ohn Paul II," Izves-
tia said.
It said that the Pope, being Polish
rather than Italian, "went against the
,,grain" of the Vatican establishment. -
unions, organizations of women and
youth and workers in the fields of c~l-
t~re, science and art, as well as law.
yens, medical professionals and repre-
sentatives of the clergy, according to
the official press agency, Tass.
Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turk, is serving
a life term #or the shooting on May 13, _
1981. ?Mr. Agca first said he operated
alone. He .later. provided information
that led to conspiracy indictments
against three. Bulgarians, including
Mr. Antonov, a former manager of the
Bulgarian national airline's Rome of-
fice. D4r. Antonov is accused of helping
to plan the shooting. The two other But=
garians charged, who left Italy before
?Mr. Antonov was arrested, will be tried
in absentia.
The Antonov committee is headed by
Vladimir Karpov, chief .editor of the
1 journal Novy Mir.
In recent articles the Soviet press
~ has saI e c areas against r. to-
nov were "a frame-u " based on "false
tPC ,mnnv V r Aeca. Mr. Agca wa
said to have beer. "masterminded by _
events of 1tallar secunty services on
instructions from the C.S. Central In-
teIligence Agencv."
A recent senes of articles in the Gov-
ernment daily , lzvestia, described Mr.
Agca as a professions) terrorist who
had worked for "neo-Fascist" organi=
nations.
~ cret services as part of a campaign to
smear the Eastern bloc nations.
The press has published articles ac-
cusing the United States of what it calls
"state terrorism." United States ac-
tions in Grenada, Nicaragua and the
Middle East are drawn together under
this heading.
.The newly formed Soviet committee
includes- representatives of trade
created what it called a Committee for
the Defense of Sergei I. Antonov, the
Bulgarian who is to go on trial in Rome
on Monday on a charge of plotting to as-
sassinate Pope Joht, Paul II in 1981.
The committee appeared to be mod-
eled aher a Bulgarian group that was
created in March. The Bulgarian rrouli
h s called the case a contrivance by the
Centre me igence A encv.
`ps~r. Antonov's Crla has drawn
near, the Soviet press has printed arti-
cles saying the former Bulgarian offi-
cial was being framed by Western se-
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23 :CIA-RDP90-005528000505100085-9