Italy pardoned Mehmet Ali Agca on Tuesday after he served almost 20 years in prison for the 1981 attempted assassination of John Paul II in St. Peter's Square.
Agca arrived at Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport, escorted by a team of Turkish security agents. He was immediately questioned by authorities and brought to Istanbul's maximum-security Kartal prison, where he is being held in solitary confinement, Turkish Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk said.
Agca escaped from that prison in 1979 and later went to Europe and shot the pope.
At Kartal, Agca will serve his 10-year sentence for the 1979 assassination of newspaper editor Abdi Ipekci, minus the 158 days that he was in prison in Turkey before escaping to Europe, Turk said.
Prosecutors were also expected to arraign Agca on charges related to a 1979 robbery. ``He will serve his term and be tried for the other crime,'' Turk said.
