Missing hiker ‘was washed into canyon’
discussed what he told me. It was very special.” In 2000 Agca was pardoned at the Pope’s request and extradited to Turkey where he spent another 10 years in jail after he was convicted of murdering Mr Ipekci and raiding two banks. After half a lifetime behind bars he is now transformed but still reluctant to discuss exactly how the mission came about and who financed it. But he did confirm the Soviet Union was behind the shooting. He said: “It was they who plotted the assassination – they wanted him dead.” Agca had studied history, languages and finance at universities in Ankara and Istanbul and dreamed of becoming a professor.
And as I speak to him, it seems impossible such an intelligent man could have such a violent past, and have been someone who paid the equivalent of £10,000 in today’s money to a former Nazi on a street in Vienna to buy the gun he shot the Pope with.
After his release Agca worked as a car salesman but he now lives on royalties from book sales.
He said: “I managed to learn some English when I was in prison. I read
HISTORIC Agca with Mirror’s front page
The Da Vinci code – it’s a very primitive book about what happens in the Vatican. I also read
Tom Clancy.
“I would very much like to visit London if I could get a visa.”
Then he joked: “I’m up to date on Brexit – perhaps that will change everything.”
Agca, who is single and never married, is now hoping to tell his story on the big screen. He said: “I am planning to make a film or some sort of documentary on what happened. I am hoping Hollywood will be interested.”
He is banned from visiting Italy but made a clandestine trip back in 2014. He recalled: “I went back to Rome, back to the Vatican.
“I wasn’t allowed to but I went in to the forests of Serbia and got across the border into Hungary and then made my way down to Italy.
“I went into St Peter’s Square on December 27 – to the exact spot where I shot the Pope. I took some flowers with me, roses.
“It was the exact time, 5.20pm, that he visited me in jail on December 27, 1981.
“Some people recognised me but there was no trouble, no problems at all. The police were very nice to me.”
Incredibly, in 2015, he also decided to visit
Agca now cares for city strays Pictures: PHIL COBURN
Pope greets his attacker in jail cell
Russia. He had never been before, even though he claims the Soviets orchestrated the assassination plot. He told me: “I went to Moscow. I see the Kremlin as like al-Qaeda.
“I met some very senior people but they told me, ‘This is Russia now not the Soviet Union. We owe nothing to you’.
“If they had wanted to kill me that was the time to do it. But they didn’t. I believe in God. I respect all religions – Muslims, Christians and Jews.”
Now Agca spends his days feeding stray cats and dogs on the streets of Istanbul.
He said: “Animal rights are as important as human rights. I spend around £200 a month feeding them. It is the right thing to do – they all know me and come running when they see me. They are all so innocent. We must look after them as well as we look after people.”
And he added: “I feel like the Pontiff of stray animals in Istanbul.”
■ Do you know Agca’s girlfriend Edith? She would be 68 or 69 now and worked in a large London store in 1980. Email andy.lines@mirror. co.uk or call 0207 293 3831.
MEHMET ALI AGCA ON HIS NEW LIFE
FOUND Stephanie Simpson
THE body of a missing British hiker in New Zealand has been discovered.
Stephanie Simpson, 32, disappeared after telling friends she wanted to visit a national park last week.
They raised the alarm when she failed to turn up for work on Monday.
Police search and rescue teams had found the hiker’s body yesterday.
Helicopter crews spotted her belongings near Pyke Creek, in Mount Aspiring National Park, on the country’s South Island.
Police believe the landscaper from Basildon, Essex, removed her pack and boots and went into the water before being washed into a canyon.
Sgt Mark Kirkwood, from West Coast Search and Rescue, said: “It’s a very hazardous area.”
Animals are as important as humans... I spend £200 a month to feed them