Ankara, Turkey - Mehmet Ali Agca shocked the world with his assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II, but his motive for the attack — and whether he had help — remains shrouded in mystery nearly 25 years later. Agca, who will be freed from prison in his native Turkey this week, has only fueled conspiracy theories with his inconsistent and at times contradictory remarks about the May 13, 1981, shooting in Rome's St. Peter's Square.
Minutes after his arrest, Agca declared he had acted alone. But within days, police believed someone had given him money and other support.
In an interview last year with the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica, Agca made contradictory remarks about his attempt on John Paul's life. He initially said
Vatican prelates helped him carry out the shooting, adding: "The devil is within the Vatican."
He then reportedly said in the same interview that "nobody in the world knew of my attempt."
Some have speculated that agents from Bulgaria helped plot the assassination attempt because of that country's ties with the Soviet Union, which reportedly was alarmed by the pope's support for the Solidarity trade union in Poland.
During a 2002 trip to Bulgaria, however, John Paul sought to lay the issue to rest, declaring he never believed there was a Bulgarian connection to Agca.
Others have pinned blame on the Soviets, who reportedly worried the Polish pope would stir uprisings against communism across Eastern Europe.
"Mehmet Ali Agca was an agent and hired killer for the Soviet Union, who wanted Pope John Paul II killed because of his opposition to communism and his support for Solidarity labor movement in Poland. He should not be released from prison," Raymond Flynn, former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican and a longtime friend of Pope John Paul II, said in a statement Sunday.
Bulgaria and the Soviet Union consistently denied involvement.
John Paul himself never directly said who he thought was behind the attack, but in his book, "Memory and Identity: Conversations Between Millenniums," the late pontiff wrote that Agca had been maneuvered by another party.
"Ali Agca, as everyone says, is a professional assassin. The shooting was not his initiative, someone else planned it, someone else commissioned him," the pope wrote.
The pope called the attack "one of the last convulsions of the 20th Century ideologies of force," which he said included communism.
Agca was an inconsistent witness. During his trial, he told the court that some of his testimony had been lies, often contradicted himself, and was given to outbursts that he was Jesus Christ.
Agca later returned to his original story that he acted alone and implied that the conspiracy theory was a way to win early release.
In one of the most famous moments of his papacy, John Paul personally pardoned Agca 2 1/2 years after the attack, sitting face-to-face and almost touching knees with his attacker during a 21-minute private meeting in a prison cell in Rome.
Italy pardoned Agca and extradited him to Turkey in June 2000 after serving almost 20 years in prison for the papal assassination attempt.
Upon his return to Turkey from Italy, Agca immediately was sent to prison to serve a life sentence, which amounts to 36 years under Turkish law, for murdering the Turkish journalist Abdi Ipekci in 1979.
There are similar mysteries surrounding the shooting of Ipekci. Agca confessed to killing the left-wing newspaper editor but later retracted his statements. Ipekci was shot nine times by Agca and a second gunman, who remains unidentified.
Agca served less than six months in a Turkish prison in 1979 for killing Ipekci before he escaped, resurfacing in 1981 in Rome.
Agca was first linked to the pope in November 1979 during a visit to Turkey by John Paul. On the run after his prison escape, Agca sent a letter to Turkish newspapers in which he threatened to kill John Paul. He said later that only tight security kept him from doing so.
When the pontiff was hospitalized early 2005, Agca wished him a speedy recovery in a brief handwritten letter in Italian but also urged him to tell the world that its end is near in his latest cryptic message.
"You and I suffer for the realization of a universal divine plan," Agca said. "I wish you a speedy recovery."
When the pope died, Agca petitioned Turkish authorities to attend the funeral, but his request was turned down.