Mehmet Ali Ağca
Mehmet Ali Ağca | |
|---|---|
Ağca in 2017 | |
| Born | 9 January 1958 |
| Organization | Grey Wolves (formerly) |
| Criminal status | Pardoned in Italy, paroled in Turkey |
| Convictions | Abdi İpekçi's murder and the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment in Italy (served 19 years); Death penalty and various lengths of imprisonment in Turkey (served 10 years) |
| Details | |
| Killed | Abdi İpekçi |
| Injured | Pope John Paul II |
Mehmet Ali Ağca (Turkish: [mehˈmet ɑˈli ˈɑːdʒɑ]; born 9 January 1958) is a Turkish hitman and former member of the Grey Wolves. He murdered Abdi İpekçi, a journalist, on 1 February 1979 and was imprisoned. He escaped from prison and travelled illegally to Vatican City on 13 May 1981 to assassinate Pope John Paul II. However, after the failed assassination attempt, he was captured and imprisoned by the Italian police.
After being imprisoned for 19 years in Italy where he was visited by the Pope, he was deported to Turkey, where he served a ten-year sentence. Ağca was released from prison on 18 January 2010. He described himself as a mercenary with no political orientation, although he is known to have been a member of the fascist, Turkish ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves, as well as the state-sponsored Counter-Guerrilla.
In 2014, thirty-three years after his crime, Ağca visited Vatican City to lay white roses on the tomb of the recently canonized John Paul II, and said he wanted to meet Pope Francis, a request that was denied.