ISTANBUL, April 1: Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish extremist who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul in 1981, is praying for his ailing “brother” from his Istanbul prison cell, his lawyer Mustafa Demirbag said on Friday. “My client is very sad,” Demirbag said in a telephone interview. “His thoughts are with his brother, the pope, and he is praying for him.” Mehmet Agca, 47, was “deeply touched” by news of John Paul II’s rapidly deteriorating health and “wishes him a speedy recovery,” the lawyer said.

Mr Agca was 23 and on the run from the Turkish police when he opened fire on the pope at Saint Peter’s Square as the pontiff was headed for an audience in an open vehicle. Agca’s motives remain unclear. The pope was seriously wounded in the abdomen after the assassination attempt, and Agca spent the next 19 years in Italian prisons before being extradited to Turkey in 2000. —AFP