ISTANBUL - Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turk who attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, was mourning the death of the pontiff, whom he saw as a "brother", Agca's brother said Sunday.
"He (Agca) is extremely sad. He has lost his brother, the pope, and he is in mourning," Adnan Agca told AFP in a telephone interview.
"The pope showed great closeness to my family and we are all very sorry for this death," he added.
Adnan Agca said that he and his mother, Muzeyyen, were planning to attend to the late pope's funeral if they can.
"The pope received my mother and me several times at the Vatican. He treated us very well. We would like to go to his funeral," Adnan Agca said.
Agca, now 47, was 23 and on the run from the Turkish police when he opened fire on the pope at in Saint Peter's Square as the pontiff was headed for an audience in an open vehicle.
The pope was seriously wounded in the abdomen after the assassination attempt, whose motives remain murky, and Agca spent the next 19 years in Italian prisons before being extradited to Turkey in 2000.
Upon his return to Turkey, Agca, who was forgiven by John Paul II, was sentenced to seven and a half years in jail for a bank robbery committed in the 1970s and to life imprisonment for the murder of prominent Turkish journalist Abdi Ipekci.
The life sentence was later reduced to 10 years' imprisonment.
Agca is serving his time in an Istanbul prison.
04/03/2005 11:28 GMT