Gave Agca Gun, Defendant in Papal Plot Trial Admits

A Turkish defendant in the papal plot trial admitted today that he gave Mehmet Ali Agca the gun he used to shoot Pope John Paul II. It was the first public confirmation of Agca’s story that he did not act alone.

Prosecutor Antonio Marini said the testimony by Omar Bagci is extremely important for the state’s attempt to prove a plot by Bulgarians and Turks to kill the Polish-born pontiff.

The credibility of Agca, 27, the state’s star witness, was damaged when he disrupted the first two days of the trial, saying he was Jesus Christ and then refusing to testify about how he got the gun. (Story on Page 15.)

Bagci admitted that he gave the 9-millimeter Browning pistol to Agca in Milan four days before the May 13, 1981, shooting in St. Peter’s Square, but he denied knowing that Agca planned to shoot the Pope.

Asked by Judge Severino Santiapichi why he brought the gun from Switzerland to Milan to give to Agca, Bagci replied, “I was afraid of Agca.”

Pressed by Judge

The judge pressed Bagci on whether he knew what Agca planned to do with the gun.

“How was I to know he wanted to kill the Pope?” Bagci, 39, said through an interpreter.

Repeatedly pressed about a conspiracy to kill the Pope, Bagci was evasive and claimed that he did not realize at that time what was happening.

When Bagci stepped off the witness stand at the noon recess, Marini told reporters that the testimony showed “that Agca’s credibility is complete and absolute.”

He said Bagci confirmed what the papal assailant had told Italian investigators about how he obtained the gun.

Agca, the state’s star witness, was not in the courtroom today. The judge ruled Tuesday that Agca could not be present when Bagci was testifying, to prevent Agca from changing his story to fit Bagci’s testimony.

7 Charged With Conspiracy

Agca was called to testify against three Bulgarians and four Turks charged with conspiracy in connection with the shooting of the Pope. All seven defendants face life sentences. Agca himself is charged with smuggling the pistol into Italy. In his first trial, when he was convicted of shooting the Pope, prosecutors did not know where he had gotten the gun.

Antonio Albano, the prosecutor who brought the indictments, maintains that Bulgaria, possibly with Soviet support, masterminded the plot to help stop unrest in the Pope’s native Poland.

The Soviet Union and Bulgaria have repeatedly denied East Bloc involvement in the assassination attempt and have called such allegations attempts by the West to discredit the communist system.

The prosecution has built most of its case against the seven on Agca’s statement’s to investigators. When he was arrested four years ago Agca claimed that he acted alone, but he later retracted that.