Conspiracy to Kill the Pope

By George Russell

Italian authorities declare that Agca had "accomplices "

The shots rang across St. Peter's Square last May, one witness recalled, like "the popping of a string of firecrackers." Pope John Paul II lay grievously wounded, and a right-wing Turkish fanatic, Mehmet Ali Agca, 23, barely escaped being torn to pieces by an angry mob for attempting to kill the Pope. Ever since, Agca has claimed that he acted alone. But right from the start, Italian police and the judges who sentenced him to life imprisonment felt to the contrary, yet were strangely reluctant to pursue their leads. Last week Italian investigators finally declared that they had concrete evidence of there being "accomplices of Agca's in St. Peter's Square at the time of the shooting."

Incredibly, that announcement was based on photographs that the Italians had had for seven months. The pictures were taken by Lowell Newton, an American who had witnessed the assassination attempt. Newton's photos were passed on to the police almost immediately after the shooting, but there was no reaction. Then, in December, the Italians suddenly called Newton to Rome. He made the trip last week to testify about what he had seen.

After the shots, Newton recalls, "I saw this man running toward me. I looked down and saw a gun in his right hand and froze." The man, says Newton, had "longish black hair and what I could only describe as Mediterranean features: dark skin, suntanned, but not black." The man passed within four feet of Newton, who ran in pursuit, taking two photographs from behind before the fugitive disappeared into the columned archways surrounding the square.

Subsequently, Newton decided that the man could have been Ali Chafic, one of the team of alleged Libyan hitmen believed to be planning to kill President Ronald Reagan or other high American officials. Newton made that identification after studying a drawing of Chafic circulated by the U.S. Government.

Italian authorities had no comment to make on Newton's thoughts concerning Chafic, but they were so impressed by his testimony about the gunman he saw the day the Pope was shot that they declared that his evidence was "not only very important but of ultimate importance in our investigation."

Newton's mystery man may be the key to the authorities' investigation, but the Italians have long had far more conclusive evidence that there was indeed a conspiracy to kill the Pope. A picture taken by the official Vatican photographer at the instant of the tragedy clearly shows another Turk at Agca's elbow. Turkish authorities have identified the man as Omar Ay, a member of the neofascist National Action Party (N.A.P.), the group that aided Agca to escape from a Turkish jail and start on his trip to Rome. A warrant for Ay's arrest is outstanding in Ankara.

The Vatican photograph alone would seem to show that Agca was still functioning as part of a right-wing organization when he shot the Pope. Indeed, the presiding judge at Agca's trial declared that "we have some photos. Next to Agca is another person whom certain persons identify as a Turkish citizen, the name and last name of whom we have received this morning." But the judge did not reveal Ay's name, and in a trial document released two months later the authorities declared that, while they believed that a conspiracy existed, "the evidence acquired does not permit one at this time to unveil the identity of the promoters of the conspiracy."

Because of Newton's testimony, the Italians intend to question Agca again. So far he has steadfastly refused to cooperate and has been on a hunger strike at Ascoli Piceno prison since Dec. 20. But the sudden new interest in Agca does not compensate for the authorities' lack of diligence in the preceding seven months. Nor does the fact that authorities early gave the assassination case to the overburdened DIGOS, the country's top antiterrorist police organization. DIGOS has been working on other incidents of terrorism, notably the murderous campaigns of the Red Brigades. The organization is now preoccupied with the kidnaping of U.S. Brigadier General James Dozier. In addition, the Vatican has not been pressing authorities to pin down the existence and extent of a conspiracy.

Even so, the dawdling approach of Italian authorities is astonishing. The fact that the authorities have finally admitted that Agca had accomplices in St. Peter's Square means that persons are still at large who wanted to kill one of the most revered figures in the world--and who may want to try again.

--By George Russell. Reported by Christopher Redman/Detroit and Wilton Wynn/Rome

With reporting by Christopher Redman, Wilton Wynn

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