The man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 will be released from a Turkish prison this week after a court decided he had completed his sentence with time served for the attack on the pontiff and crimes committed in his homeland.
Mehmet Ali Agca was extradited to Turkey in 2000 after serving almost 20 years in Italy for shooting and wounding the pope in St. Peter's Square in Rome. His motive for shooting John Paul in the abdomen on May 13, 1981, remains unclear. Agca, 47, was to be released on parole Thursday, his lawyer, Mustafa Demirbag told The Associated Press by telephone.
In one of the most famous moments of his papacy, John Paul personally pardoned Agca 2 1/2 years after the attack, sitting face-to-face and almost touching knees with his attacker during a 21-minute private meeting in a prison cell in Rome.
John Paul called his prison visit "a historic day in my life as a man, a Christian, as a bishop and bishop of Rome," and he added that Agca had expressed repentance for the attack.
"The Lord gave us the grace to be able to meet each other as men and as brothers," the pope said.
Reporters were barred but a Vatican film showed that Agca bent and kissed the pope's ring at the start of the meeting and shook his hand after they sat down. The pope also had pardoned Agca from his hospital bed five days after the shooting.
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