Mehmet Ali Agca, the gunman who tried to kill the Pope, arrived in his native Turkey yesterday and was immediately jailed for a 1979 murder.
Italy granted clemency to Agca (43) on Tuesday after he had served 19 years of a life sentence in jail for shooting Pope John Paul in 1981, and then extradited him to Turkey. "For me this is really a dream come true," Italy's ANSA news agency quoted Agca as saying.
A number of police convoys, all but one a decoy, sped out of Istanbul airport in the early hours of the morning and fanned out across the city. One procession of police cars and armoured vehicles took Agca to Kartal prison.
Agca has 9 1/2 years left to serve for the 1979 murder of journalist Abdi Ipekci. He spent just 158 days in jail before escaping. His death sentence, handed down in absentia, was later commuted to 10 years' imprisonment. "I want to trust Turkish justice," said Ipekci's wife, Sibel, wary of a possible pardon. The Turkish Prime Minister, Mr Bulent Ecevit, welcomed the extradition. "Italy's handing the terrorist Agca over to Turkish justice is a very important event which could raise the curtain of secrecy from Ipekci's murder and illuminate some dark pages in our recent history," he said.
The Justice Minister, Mr Hikmet Sami Turk, said that having already received an amnesty when his death sentence was commuted, Agca was most unlikely to be granted clemency again. Agca was pardoned by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi of Italy at the request of the Pope, who long ago forgave him for trying to kill him. The Vatican has said the pontiff was very pleased about the decision to free his would-be killer.
But the question over who might have been really behind the assassination attempt remains an enduring mystery. Turkish newspapers speculated that mystery might now be solved with Agca's return.
At a 1986 trial, prosecutors failed to prove charges that Bulgarian secret services had hired Agca to kill the Pope on behalf of the Soviet Union. The so-called "Bulgarian Connection" trial of three Turks and three Bulgarians charged with conspiring along with Agca, ended with an "acquittal for lack of sufficient evidence".
The verdict fell short of a full acquittal. It meant the jury was not fully convinced of the defendants' innocence but that there was not enough evidence for a guilty verdict.
The granting of clemency came exactly one month after the Vatican revealed that the attempt on the Pope's life was foretold during apparitions by the Virgin Mary at Fatima in 1917.
The Turkish Prime Minister, Mr Bulent Ecevit, fearing a rift within his three-party coalition, yesterday criticised the far right for jeopardising the government. A division between the Nationalist Action Party and its conservative allies has made markets nervous. The worry is that instability in the year-old government could endanger a three-year, IMF-backed $4 billion economic reform programme.