#3 Yup, this 'un reeks:
http://www.forbes.com/business/businesstech/feeds/ap/2006/01/12/ap2446626.html
Mehmet Ali Agca was freed from prison Thursday nearly 25 years after he shot Pope John Paul II, with supporters welcoming him with flowers but Turkey's justice minister ordering a review of his release amid mounting criticism.
Agca, now 48 and with white hair, served 20 years in prison for attempted murder in Italy, where John Paul forgave him in a famous visit to his cell in 1983. He was extradited to Turkey and was freed after five years in jail for the murder of a Turkish journalist.
He was driven through the gates of the high-security Kartal Prison as dozens of police officers stood guard. His ultranationalist supporters showered the car with red and yellow flowers …
Many Turks were outraged at the decision to free Agca, approved by local courts, and Cicek apparently was responding to widespread criticism of the release after Agca served only five years for murdering Turkish journalist Abdi Ipekci …
Cicek said a military court had ordered Agca's execution in 1980 for murdering Ipekci but the sentence was commuted to life in prison in 2002, after Turkey abolished the death penalty. The life sentence was translated into 36 years …
"He is a family friend. We love him," Mustafa Akmercan, one of two Turks who hijacked an Air Malta jetliner in 1997 to demand Agca's release, told The Associated Press outside the prison. "We're very happy."
An outpouring of hearts and flowers, an overjoyed highjacker brother, membership in ultranationalist cadres. All the ingredients of a cheap spy novel, except it's reality. |
The Turkish assailant who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 will be released from prison this week and now wants to work towards world peace. A court decided to free Mehmet Ali Agca, 48, on parole, saying he had completed his prison term in Turkey.