Vatican offered pope gunman '$50m to convert'

Ankara - The man who attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981 on Wednesday claimed that the Vatican had offered him $50-million (about R348,23-million) his freedom and a cardinal's position if he converted to Catholicism.

The claim was made in letters given to the press by Mehmet Ali Agca's lawyer just before the resumption of a trial in Istanbul, where he faces charges of extortion.

In one of the letters entitled, "I'm innocent, the most guilty is the Vatican," Agca denied that he was an extortionist but that he was someone who had dedicated himself to fight the Vatican and "similar evil monsters" for the "glory of humanity".

He claimed that in 1983 the Vatican offered him money, his freedom and a cardinal's position if he accepted in front of the world's media in Vatican Square that he had converted to Catholicism.

"I refused to live in the palaces," Agca claimed. "I would rather be a monkey in the jungles of Africa that the king in the Vatican," the letter continued.

Agca's lawyer said that the letters were not irrational but were instead reasonable and believable. He also claimed that Agca still has more revelations to make about the Vatican.

Agca was released from prison in Italy in June earlier this year after serving almost 20 years for the 1981 attempted assassination of the pope. He was immediately extradited to Turkey.

He is currently in Istanbul's high security Kartal Prison serving a sentence for the murder of a Turkish journalist in 1978. - Sapa-DPA