Release of pope gunman blocked
April 27, 2002 Posted: 1431 GMT
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ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Turkey's president has vetoed an amnesty bill that
could have freed 10 years early the Turkish gunman who shot Pope John Paul II.
The gunman, Mehmet Ali Agca, spent nearly 20 years
in an Italian prison after shooting and seriously injuring the pope in 1981.
He is now serving 17 years for the 1979 murder of
Turkish newspaper editor Abdi Ipekci and the robbery of an Istanbul factory
that year.
The amnesty could have cut Agca's sentence to
seven years, of which he has already served nearly two.
Parliament approved the amnesty bill on Thursday,
but President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said on Saturday that it had serious faults.
The sentence reductions would occur regardless of
a prisoner's behaviour, he said. Also, the bill passed with a majority but not
with 60 percent of parliament -- which Sezer argued was constitutionally
necessary for a special amnesty.
Under the amnesty, most convicts would be released
10 years early. The measure would apply to all prisoners except those convicted
of terrorism charges or treason.
Nearly 20,000 Turkish prisoners were freed by an
amnesty in December 2000. The amendment passed late on Thursday followed
complaints that the previous amnesty unfairly discriminated between prisoners.
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Pope John Paul II talks to Mehmet
Agca in a prison in Rome |
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Due to
Sezer's veto, parliament will debate the bill for a second time. If it passes
again without changes, Sezer would be required to sign it, but could ask the
Constitutional Court for an annulment.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit
expressed disappointment over the amnesty. "I can't digest this,"
Ecevit said. "I hope this will be prevented. I am not a supporter of such
a wide amnesty."
Italy extradited Agca to Turkey after Rome
pardoned him for the 1981 attack in St. Peter's Square that wounded the pope.
Agca carried out the shooting after escaping from prison in Turkey, where he
was being held for killing Ipekci. Agca's motives for the pope attack have been
the source of much speculation, but remain unclear.
Turkey has introduced dozens of prisoner amnesties
over the years to help ease conditions in tense, overcrowded prisons.
However, critics accuse the government of
tailoring the new amnesty to benefit Agca -- once affiliated with a far-right
movement that had links to a nationalist party now in government -- and Haluk
Kirci, another former nationalist militant jailed for murdering seven leftist
students in 1978.
Turkish media were strongly critical of the
prospect of an early release for Agca.
"We are ashamed," headlined the daily Milliyet,
where slain Abdi Ipekci worked as editor, on Friday over a picture of Agca.
"Agca has never expressed regret or
apologised, why should he be pardoned?" the paper quoted Ipekci's daughter
Nukhet as saying.
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