Release Urged for Bulgarians in Pope Attack

A state prosecutor, citing a lack of evidence, called today for the acquittal of three Bulgarians accused of plotting the 1981 attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II.

Prosecutor Antonio Marini, ending a marathon summation, demanded life prison terms for two Turkish defendants, Oral Celik and Musa Cerdar Celebi, and 24 years in jail for a third Turk, Omar Bagci.

A fourth Turk charged in the case, Bekir Celenk, died in a Turkish jail Oct. 14, 1985.

The three Bulgarians, whose implication in the case had been cited as evidence of East Bloc involvement in the assassination bid, are Sergei Antonov, Todor Aivazov and Zhelio Vassilev.

Antonov, the only one of the three in Italian custody, has attended sessions of the trial.

Acceptance Likely

Legal officials said the state prosecutor’s recommendations for acquittal of the three Bulgarians will almost certainly be accepted by the court when it hands down its verdicts, probably next month.

They said acquittal on grounds of insufficient evidence would not mean the three were totally cleared of taking part in the plot, but only that the evidence presented at the mammoth trial was insufficient to convict them.

The trial was based almost entirely on evidence provided by Mehmet Ali Agca, a right-wing Turkish terrorist serving a life term in Italy for shooting and wounding the Pope on May 13, 1981.

Agca, 27, claimed he and the other Turks were hired by Bulgarian agents to kill the Pope on the orders of a diplomat in the Soviet Embassy in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital.