Editing Mehmet Ali Ağca (section)

==Prison time, release, and rearrest==
Ağca was sentenced in July 1981 to [[life imprisonment]] in Italy for the assassination attempt. Following his shooting, Pope John Paul II asked people to "pray for my brother (Ağca), whom I have sincerely forgiven."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/5704/holy-see-defers-to-courts-on-possible-release-of-would-be-papal-assassin |title=Holy See defers to courts on possible release of would-be Papal assassin |publisher=[[Catholic News Agency]] |date=9 January 2006 |access-date=19 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708123834/http://m.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=5704 |archive-date=8 July 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1983, the Pope and Ağca met and spoke privately at the prison where Ağca was being held. The Pope was also in touch with Ağca's family over the years, meeting his mother in 1987 and his brother a decade later.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/would-be-assassin-mourns-pope/ |title=Would-Be Assassin Mourns Pope |publisher=Cbsnews.com |date=11 February 2009 |access-date=19 January 2010 |archive-date=23 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090823025938/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/03/world/main685125.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> After he was imprisoned, Ağca announced that he had left Islam and converted to Christianity.<ref>Busted: Mugshots and Arrest Records of the Famous and Infamous, Thomas J. Craughwell, 2011, pp. 18, {{ISBN|9781603762694}}</ref>

Ağca's release was requested in the summer of 1983 by the alleged kidnappers of [[Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi|Emanuela Orlandi]], the young daughter of a Vatican employee, who mysteriously disappeared in [[Rome]] in June of that year.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://roma.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/22_dicembre_23/il-caso-orlandi-gregori-e-le-prove-dimenticate-l-amica-pedinata-emanuela-emigrata-in-vaticano-la-trattativa-su-agca-6a084752-dbfc-4ca3-a629-0a9faddb8xlk.shtml?refresh_ce|title=Il caso Orlandi-Gregori e le prove dimenticate: l'amica pedinata, Emanuela emigrata in Vaticano, la trattativa su Agca|publisher=www.corriere.it|date=22 December 2022}}</ref> On 9 June 1997, [[Air Malta Flight 830]] was [[Aircraft hijacking|hijacked]] by two men. After landing in [[Cologne]], the hijackers demanded the release of Ağca. He was not released and the hijackers surrendered. After serving almost 20 years of a life sentence in prison in Italy, at the request of Pope John Paul II, Ağca was pardoned by the then Italian president [[Carlo Azeglio Ciampi]] in June 2000 and deported to Turkey.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.3308559433 |title=Italy: Turkish gunman wants to be baptised at the Vatican |publisher=Adnkronos.com |access-date=19 January 2010 |archive-date=7 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307140124/http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.3308559433 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Following his extradition, he was imprisoned for the 1979 murder of [[Abdi İpekçi]] and for two bank raids carried out in the 1970s. Ağca was arrested on 25 June and incarcerated in the Maltepe Military Prison. He fled to Bulgaria on 25 November and was sentenced to death [[trial in absentia|''in absentia'']]. Ağca was extradited to Turkey in 2000 by benefiting from the Conditional Amnesty Law. This consideration granted to Ağca elicited strong reactions. Both cases were merged and tried before the Kadıköy 1st High Criminal Court. The single trial concerned the hijacking of Cengiz Aydos's taxi in 1979, robbing the Yıldırım jewellery store in Kızıltoprak on 22 March 1979 and stealing money from the Fruko soda storage on 4 April 1979. On 18 January 2000, the judges dismissed the charges because of the statute of limitations on the case filed for the jewellery store robbery and for "breach of the Firearms Act" (law no. 6136). For embezzlement and money theft Ağca was sentenced to 36 years of imprisonment. Ağca's lawyers applied for his release under Law no. 4516 on Parole and Deferral of Penalties in December 2000. Their request was denied by the 1st High Criminal Court of Kartal. The lawyers filed an appeal against this decision, but the appeals court upheld the ruling. Ağca's life sentence was reduced to 10 years under a Turkish law that shortened prison sentences if served in a foreign prison. The money-laundering conviction and 36-year sentence were overturned because of the statute of limitations for robbery, which was seven years under Turkish law.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bianet.org/english/human-rights/119528-mehmet-ali-agca-released-29-years-after-attack-on-pope-john-paul-ii |title=bianet }} {{dead link|date=September 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In early February 2005, during the Pope's final illness, Ağca sent a letter to the Pope wishing him well and also warning him that the world would end soon. When the Pope died on 2 April 2005, Ağca's brother Adnan gave an interview in which he said that Ağca and his entire family were grieving, and that the Pope had been a great friend to them.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-05-15 |title=Attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II (1981) |url=https://www.thefridaytimes.com/2020/05/15/attempted-assassination-of-pope-john-paul-ii-1981/ |access-date=2024-04-04 |website=The Friday Times |language=en}}</ref>

Ağca was released on parole on 12 January 2006.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/01/12/turkey.pope.gunman/index.html |access-date=26 October 2008 |first=Paula |last=Newton |agency=[[Associated Press]] |title=Man who shot pope freed |publisher=CNN |date=12 January 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060114175840/http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/01/12/turkey.pope.gunman/index.html |archive-date = 14 January 2006}}</ref> Mustafa Demirbağ, his lawyer, explained his release as a combination of amnesty and penal reform: an amnesty in 2000 deducted 10 years from his time, the court then deducted his 20 years in the Italian prison based on a new article in the penal code, and so he became eligible for parole for good behaviour. However, a report from the French [[Agence France Presse|AFP news agency]] stated that "The Turkish judicial authorities still haven't explained exactly which legal resources he had access to", and former Minister of Justice [[Hikmet Sami Türk]], in government at the time of Ağca's extradition, claimed that, from a legal viewpoint, his release was a "serious mistake" at best, and that he should have not been freed before 2012.<ref>{{cite news|title=Mehmet Ali Agca, le Turc qui avait voulu tuer le Pape, libéré de prison |language=fr |date=12 January 2006 |access-date=12 January 2006 |publisher=[[Agence France Presse]] |url=http://www.afp.com/francais/news/stories/060112114822.7i7t8igl.html }} {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.redorbit.com/news/general/350624/pope_john_pauls_shooter_to_be_released/ |access-date=26 October 2008 |title=Pope John Paul's Shooter to Be Released |work=redOrbit |agency=[[Associated Press]] |date=9 January 2006 |first=Selcan |last=Hacaoglu}}</ref> However, on 20 January 2006, the Turkish Supreme Court ruled that his time served in Italy could not be deducted from his Turkish sentence and he was again imprisoned.<ref name=reuters060120/>