The World - News from Dec. 20, 1985
Italian officials arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria, to hear testimony from two Bulgarian diplomats charged with plotting to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981. Judge Severino Santiapichi, Deputy Judge Fernando Attolico and Public Prosecutor Antonio Marini want to question Todor Aivazov and Zhelyo Vassilev, about statements made by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca, who was tried and convicted of trying to kill the Pope. Agca originally said he acted alone but later claimed “a Bulgarian connection” in the assassination plot. Aivazov and Vassilev were both stationed at the Bulgarian Embassy in Rome at the time of the assassination attempt.
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