Fast Facts: Mehmet Ali Agca
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Turkish man who shot Pope John Paul II was taken into custody after a court ordered him to return to prison.
RELEASE
— Mehmet Ali Agca was released from prison eight days ago.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}— He shot Pope John Paul II in 1981.
— He served more than 25 years in Italy and Turkey for the plot against the pontiff and the slaying of a Turkish journalist.
— The 48-year-old Agca was extradited to Turkey in 2000 after serving almost 20 years in prison in Italy for shooting and wounding the pope.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}SHOOTING THE POPE
— Agca shot the pope as he rode in an open car in St. Peter's Square in Rome on May 13, 1981, and was captured immediately afterward.
— John Paul was hit in the abdomen, left hand and right arm but recovered because the bullets missed vital organs.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}POPE FORGAVE AGCA
— John Paul II met with Agca in Italy's Rebibbia prison in 1983 and forgave him for the shooting.
— Agca's motive for the attack remains unclear.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}KILLED A JOURNALIST
— Agca received a life sentence, which amounts to 36 years under Turkish law, for murdering a Turkish journalist in 1979.
— He served less than six months of that sentence before he escaped, resurfacing in 1981 in Rome.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}— An amnesty later deducted ten more years from his time, leaving a little more than 25 years to be served.