The Turkish army now wants to claim Agca, 48, for missed military service, a legal obligation for Turkish men. ?We are now at the military recruitment office. The procedure for his military service has started. We are waiting for the results,? lawyer Mustafa Demirbag told Reuters. Agca served 19 years in an Italian prison for the assassination attempt before being pardoned at the Pope?s behest in 2000. He was then extradited to Turkey to serve a separate sentence in an Istanbul jail for robbery and murder.

Under new Turkish laws, his time served in Italy was deducted from the 25 years left on his sentence in Turkey for the 1979 murder of liberal newspaper editor, Abdi Ipekci. Agca, dressed in blue jeans, a blue sweater and training shoes, looked solemn as he walked out of the Istanbul jail under heavy police escort. He made no comment to the 100 or so journalists from Turkey and abroad outside the prison gate.

A few well-wishers, apparently Turkish ultra-nationalists with whom he once worked, threw flowers at the white car which whisked him away. His release has sparked criticism in Turkey. ?Day of shame,? said the centrist Milliyet newspaper, for which the slain Ipekci worked. It criticised Justice Minister Cemil Cicek for not intervening in the case to keep Agca behind bars longer. Agca has given conflicting reasons why he raised his gun above the crowd in Rome?s St. Peter?s Square and shot the Pope.

Lack of evidence

At a 1986 trial, prosecutors failed to prove charges that Bulgarian secret services had hired Agca to kill the Pope on behalf of the Soviet Union. The so-called ?Bulgarian Connection? trial ended with an ?acquittal for lack of sufficient evidence? of three Turks and three Bulgarians charged with conspiring along with Agca. The Polish-born Pontiff, who is credited by historians with helping the collapse of communism in eastern Europe in 1989, cleared Bulgaria of any link to the assassination bid during a visit to Sofia in 2002. John Paul died last year aged 84.

Jon HEMMING

PROFILE

Mehmet Ali Agca

■ Some key facts about the 48-year-old Turkish would-be assassin:

■ Agca shot and nearly killed Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981 in Rome?s St. Peter?s Square. He was arrested on the spot and a court gave him a life sentence.

■ Agca was pardoned at the Pope?s request in 2000 after 19 years in an Italian jail. He was then extradited to Turkey to serve a separate sentence for robbery and murder.

■ Agca gave conflicting reasons for his attempt on the Pope?s life, including charges of a conspiracy by Bulgaria?s communist-era secret services and the Soviet KGB. At a 1986 trial, prosecutors failed to prove a Bulgarian conspiracy.

■ At the trial, Agca also claimed to be a reincarnation of Jesus and that the shooting was the fulfilment of a prophesy the Virgin Mary told children at Fatima, Portugal in 1917.

■ In 2000, the Vatican revealed the ?Third Secret of Fatima? which foretold of the assassination bid. Pope John Paul II believed the statue of the Madonna at Fatima saved his life.

■ The Pope publicly forgave Agca four days after the shooting and again when he visited his attacker in prison in 1983. Agca says he became a Christian after the visit.

■ Agca belonged to a right-wing militant faction in Turkey in the late 1970s and was sentenced to prison for the murder of a liberal newspaper editor in 1979. He escaped a military jail with suspected help from sympathisers in the Turkish security apparatus. Turkish authorities have always denied any connection with Agca and have dismissed him as mentally unstable.