Word: antonov
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Everyone who knows me knows that I do not speak English," insisted Sergei Antonov, in his native Bulgarian. That disclaimer by the trembling, white- faced defendant came in response to pointed questioning by Judge Severino Santiapichi last week at the four-month-old trial in Rome of Antonov and six other defendants; they are accused of conspiring with Turkish Gunman Mehmet Ali Agca to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square four years ago. The question of Antonov's linguistic skills is considered vital to the , prosecution's case because Agca has said that he communicated with...
...questioning, the judge was skeptical that Antonov could have functioned effectively in his job as deputy chief of Bulgaria's Balkan Airlines' Rome office without a working knowledge of English. In fact, one important prosecution witness, former Balkan Airlines Hostess Magdalena Traynova, who now lives in Chicago, said that she once worked with Antonov and was certain that he spoke the language. Said Traynova: "I couldn't myself have gotten my job without English...
...revelations. He said that the Soviet Union had commissioned Turkish terrorists to blow up Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, the U.S.-financed radio stations in Munich. When he was shown photographs of St. Peter's Square taken moments before he shot the Pope, Agca identified Bulgarian Defendant Sergei Antonov. It was the first time he had claimed that the former representative of Bulgaria's Balkan Airlines was in the square at the time of the shooting. Agca also accused Propaganda Due, a / secret Italian Masonic lodge, of the 1983 kidnaping of the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican...
...Tehran in 1980. More baffling still, in January 1984 Agca said he had invented both Malenkov and the Soviet official. Last week Agca described the bombing of the radio stations as having taken place in late 1980; the stations were actually attacked in February 1981. The dramatic identification of Antonov lost much of its effect when Agca admitted 20 minutes later, "It is possible I am mistaken." He also seemed to mock his own charges against the Masonic lodge when he insisted that the organization "knew with certainty that I am Jesus Christ." Judge Santiapichi interrupted, "Let us leave aside...
...Soviet Union, where a national committee has been formed to issue statements in defense of Sergei Antonov, the former representative in Rome of Bulgaria's Balkan Airlines and the only Bulgarian defendant present in the courtroom, the press leaped on Agca's outbursts as evidence that his story was worthless. Prosecutor Marini disagreed. "When (Agca) begins to talk about facts," he said, "he is extremely reliable." Still, Marini was relieved when Bagci calmly, albeit reluctantly, held up under intense questioning...