Friday, January 20, 2006

What Were They Thinking?

Last week, when I read that Mehmet Ali Agca was released from prison, I couldn't believe the news.

This guy is very dangerous to any society. He killed a Turkish journalist in late 70s. He escaped from prison in 1979. He shot the Pope in 1981. While in jail for his attempt to kill the Pope, he made all kind of weird comments. All this and a Turkish court decided it's OK to release him from prison.

Well, it looks like the outrage in Turkey made the authorities change their mind. On Friday, he was arrested again and sent back to jail. The Associated Press reports:

Police took the man who shot Pope John Paul II back into custody Friday after an appeals court ordered him to return to prison to serve more time for killing a journalist and for other crimes in Turkey.

Mehmet Ali Agca did not resist and was being taken to police headquarters in Istanbul, eight days after he was released from prison, said Gov. Muammer Guler.

Agca served 19 years in prison in Italy for shooting the pope on May 13, 1981, and 5 1/2 years of a 10-year sentence in Turkey for the murder of journalist Abdi Ipekci in 1979.

In a decision that outraged many Turks, a local court had ordered his release from an Istanbul prison on Jan. 12, counting his time served in Italy as part of his sentence. Friday's ruling overturned that decision, saying there "is no legal basis" for deducting Agca's time served in Italy from his Turkish sentence.

It was up to the local court to decide how many more years Agca, 48, would have to serve. Reports suggested he could be imprisoned until 2014.

Read more...

I'd say leave him in jail for a long time. That way, he won't harm any people.
 

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