Turkish gunman, Mehmet Ali Agca, who gravely wounded Pope John Paul in a failed assassination attempt in 1981, was grief-stricken over the Pontiff?s death, Agca?s brother said yesterday. Agca, now in an Istanbul prison, was mourning the loss of ?a great friend?, the gunman?s brother Adnan Agca told Reuters.

?He is extremely saddened, he is in grief. He loved the Pope,? said Adnan Agca. They developed a personal friendship while Mehmet Ali was imprisoned in Italy, and they had announced their brotherhood.

?The Pope showed my brother and the rest of our family closeness. He was a great man,? Adnan Agca said, adding he and his mother were received by the Pope six times at the Vatican over the years.

The Pope forgave his assailant during a meeting in his Italian prison cell in 1983, two years after Agca shot the Pope in the abdomen during a general audience in St.-Peter?s Square. Many have hailed the Pope?s reconciliation with Agca as an example of the Christian principle of forgiveness.

Agca was extradited to Turkey in 2000 to serve a sentence for other crimes after spending 19 years in an Italian prison for the shooting.

Over the years, Agca has given conflicting reasons for his attempt on the Pontiff?s life, including allegations of a conspiracy with Bulgaria?s communist-era secret services and the Soviet KGB, who feared the Polish-born Pope would stir anti-communist revolt in Eastern Europe.