Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who tried to kill pope John Paul II and murdered a prominent Turkish journalist, will be released from prison in 2010, Anatolia news agency reported, citing prosecutors. The prosecutors made the decision after the Appeals Court overturned an earlier decision for Agca's release, which led to his re-imprisonment Friday after eight days of freedom.
Agca should be now released on January 18, 2010, Anatolia reported Monday, adding that the decision had been sent to the Istanbul jail where Agca is imprisoned.
He had been released on January 12 after a quarter of a century behind bars in Italy and Turkey, but Justice Minister Cemil Cicek appealed the decision on the grounds that reductions from his jail term under amnesty laws and penal code amendments had been miscalculated.
The Appeals Court heeded the minister's request Friday and overturned the decision, and Agca was taken back into custody within several hours.
Agca first came to public attention in Turkey in 1979, when he gunned down Abdi Ipekci, the chief editor and columnist of the liberal daily Milliyet.
He escaped from the prison where he was awaiting trial and resurfaced at St. Peter's Square, Rome, on May 13, 1981, with a smoking gun in hand, having shot and seriously wounded pope John Paul II.
The motives for his attack on the pontiff, and who sponsored it, remain a mystery.
Italy pardoned Agca in 2000 and extradited him to Turkey, where the former member of the ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves was also jailed for two robberies committed in the 1970s.
