Mehmet Ali Agca
PER
Agca Mehmet Ali Agca
Mehmet Ali Agca was released from a Turkish prison and he has been said to visit the Istanbul police for his daily check-ins, but he didn't obey that order. He was the man who tried to kill John Paul II in 1981. He was 48, and was told to report daily to the station in Istanbul until doctors determined whether he was fit to fulfill mandatory military services or not. He spent 19 years in Italian jails for his attempt on John Paul's life.  Mehmet Ali Agca, 48, the man who tried to assassinate John Paul II in 1981, has not made required daily check-ins with the Istanbul police since his release from a Turkish prison on Thursday. In 1999, Mr. Agca received a Vatican-approved pardon, and in 2000, he was extradited to Turkey, where he was convicted in absentia for the killing of a respected journalist, Abdi Ipekci, in 1979. He was arrested after that killing, but escaped the prison before he could be tried. In the late 1970s, he was associated with Turkish ultranationalist groups and the Turkish criminal underworld. These links have prompted speculation that his release this week might have been arranged by an illegal network with strong nationalist affiliations.