Word: martella
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Revelations continue to emerge about the thesis that the 1981 shooting of Pope John Paul II was the result of a conspiracy. The most spectacular assertion in a secret, 1,243-page report submitted to Italian authorities last week by Judge Ilario Martella was that a second would-be assassin, besides Turkish Terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca, fired at the Pontiff in St. Peter's Square. According to Martella, the second gunman was Oral Celik, 25, a Turk described as Agca's closest friend, who has not been seen since the day of the shooting. Agca told Martella that...
...three Bulgarians and Bekir Celenk, a shady Turkish Mafia figure accused of lining up Celik and Agca for the job, have insisted that they had nothing to do with the papal shooting and that they never even knew Agca. Martella claims to have contrary evidence on both counts. A problem for Martella's case, however, will be his chief witness, the inconsistent and sometimes unbelievable Agca...
...terrorist, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in July 1981, has offered detailed descriptions of the Bulgarians' personal lives, even mentioning Antonov's fascination with his collection of liquor miniatures. But Agca also revised, retracted and contradicted many of his statements. As Martella said last week, "Agca is an unpredictable person capable of anything...
Soft-spoken and courtly, Martella, 50, quietly insisted that his only job was to determine whether it was proper to hold a trial on this "extremely complex" matter. He was at pains to emphasize that his document is only an accusation, not a judgment. One avenue Martella discreetly refused to explore in public was the authorship of the conspiracy. A government prosecutor last June sent Martella a report, which was leaked to the press, asserting that "some political figure of great power," presumably in the Soviet Union, watched the rise of Poland's Solidarity labor movement and, "mindful...
Asked about that assertion, Martella would only say, "I limited myself to the facts...