Page 4-Tuesday, July 21, 1981-The Michigan Daily
Agca confesses;
wants Vatican trial
I
From AP and UPI
ROME - Turkish terrorist Mehmet
All Agca told a jury yesterday that he
shot Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's
Square, but he refused to answer
questions on grounds the court had no
jurisdiction in crimes committed in
Vatican City.
Agca, 23, with a full beard and
wearing a light green shirt and gray
trousers, claimed he was tortured and
subjected to "inhuman" conditions in
Italian jails since he was arrested and
charged with the May 13 attempt on the
pontiff's life.
THE DEFENDENT claimed he was
kept in inhuman conditions in the
maximum-security Rebibbia prison
near Rome. "I don't understand
whether I am in a medieval prison or in
a prison of a democratic country," he
said in a five-minute statement in
Turkish that was translated into Italian
for the court.
Agca also alleged he was tortured by
Italian police and demanded to be han-
ded over to the Vatican and be tried by
an international tribunal instead of by
an Italian court.
"On May 13, I was within the con-
fines of Vatican City when I shot the
head of state of Vatican City," said
Agca, 23, wearing a newly grown beard
and testifying from a bullet-proof glass
cubicle.
"WITH THE FIRST shot I wanted to
hit the pope," he said. "The second shot
went off because of panic. I was sure I
would by lynched by the crowd and I
even thought of killing myself."
Agca said at the start of the trial,
"One country cannot try me for what I
have done in another foreign coun-
try . . . I absolutely don't accept the
jurisdiction of the Italian court."
The Lateran Treaty of 1929, which
spells out relations between the Holy
See and Italy, says crimes committed
in Vatican City can be tried by Italian
authorities.
AFTER AGCA'S court-appointed
lawyer, Pietro D'Ovidio, gave an
opening statement, Chief Judge
Severino Santiapichi ruled the court
has jurisdiction, When he asked is the
suspect wished to remain silent, as is
his right, Agca said he would not
respond because he didn't accept the
court's jurisdiction.
Agca, who sat facing the judge and a
jury of two women and. four men,
threatened to refuse food if he is not
tried by the Vatican within five months.
Official concurs spies
operate on
(Continued from Page1)
said he preferred not to comment prior
to that meeting.
In the meantime, a memorial service
was held for Chen Saturday, both in
Ann Arbor and at Carnegie-Mellon
University in Pittsburgh where Chen
was an assistant professor in statistics.
ACCORDING TO Prof. Morris
DeGroot, former head of the CMU
statistics department, about 170 people
came to the memorial service from as
far away as Chicago and New York. He
said it was about "one-third memorial
service and two-thirds political rally."
After the service the crowd marched
through the streets of Pittsburgh from
the CMU campus to the University of
Pittsburgh.
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campus
The initial announcements said the
agents of the KMT (the ruling party in
Taiwan) were not to be allowed at the
service, though DeGroot said there
were a few people who were suspected
KMT agents.
"Many of the students wore masks"
for fear of retribution said DeGroot,
who added it "would be good to try and
find out hopefully by some in-
vestigations and hearings" who the
suspected KMT agents are.
IN ANN ARBOR, none of the atten-
dants of the service wore masks but the
service did have a distinct political
flavor.
"It should have been more on human
rights - not so much on Taiwanese in-
dependence," said a woman from Hong
Kong who was a friend of Chen's.
The right wing of the Taiwanese In-
dependence Movement (TIM) was in
charge of the service and they made it
sound as if Chen was on the right, when
in fact he was on the left wing of TIM,
she said.
Toward the end of the service there
was a call for speakers from the floor -
and a subsequent small response -
maybe for fear of being identified, said
statistics department Chairman Micael
Woodroofe.
In Brief
Compiled from Associated Press and
United Press International reports
Latest hunger striker
on verge of death
BELFAST, Northern Ireland-IRA hunger striker Kieran Doherty lay
dying of starvation yesterday and there were signs his death could trigger a
political crisis in the neighboring Irish Republic.
A spokesman for Sinn Fein, the outlawed Irish Republican Army's
political wing, said Doherty was "lapsing in and out of consciousness" on his
60th day without food. He said Doherty has been given last rites of the
Roman Catholic Church and that his death was considered "just a matter-of
time."
Doherty, 25, who is servinga 22-year term in Maze Prison for possession of
guns and explosives, was elected to the Irish Parliament in Dublin on June
11.
His death would mean an empty seat in the Cavan-Monaghan district,
leaving Irish Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald's minority government
dangerously exposed.
Interest rates up;
stock market sinking
NEW YORK-Interest rates rose sharply yesterday, sending the stock
market reeling to its worst loss in six months and also depressing the prices
of gold and other commodities while boosting the dollar.
The rise in interest rates came as President Reagan heard complaints
from European leaders in Ottawa about the high level ofu.S. interest rates,
which French President Francois Mitterand said were contributing to
unemployment in his country.
The increase in interest rates did not affect the 20.5 percent prime bank
lending rate but affected most other rates. The discount rate on 6-month
Treasury bills at yesterday's auction was 15.318 percent, up from 14.23 per-
cent a week ago and the highest rate in almost two months.
Bomb disrupts Swiss airport
ZURICH, Switzerland-A powerful bomb went off yesterday at the un-
derground railway station of Zurich's international airport, slightly injuring
five people and causing about $50,000 in damage, police said.
The bombing, for which Armenian militants claimed responsibility, was
the second in slightly more than 24 hours in usually tranquil Switzerland.
About three hours after yesterday's explosion, an anonymous caller to a
news agency in Geneva said the blast was the work of the "June 9th
Organization," which also took responsibility for an explosion Sunday after-
noon outside the federal parliament building in Bern.
The organization takes its name from the date last month an avowed Ar-
menian commando was arrested in the fatal shooting of a Turkish consular
employee in midtown Geneva.
Bear's death sentence upheld
MOUNT VERNON, Ill.-A state appeals court yesterday upheld a death
sentence for an 18-year-old brown bruin who bit a young camper, but
lawyers on Tommy the Bear's side say the fight for his life isn't over.
"We'll exhaust all out legal options before we let him go," said Johnson
County State's Attorney J. Louis Wingate after the Illinois Appellate Court
agreed the bear should be tested for rabies.
Attorney Thomas Keefe Jr., who sought that court order on behalf of the
bitten camper and his parents, went to the appeals court when camp officials
ignored the ruling, observing instead a Johnson County restraining order
keeping the bear alive and placing the bear in quarantine.
The bear bit 11-year-old Scott Burrelsman on July 7 when the boy reached
into Tommy's pen at feeding time despite a handler's warnings to keep
clear.
Bar owners 'off the hook'
LANSING-Gov. William Milliken signed into law yesterday a bill
designed to take off the hook bar owners who say they unwittingly violated
the campaign finance law during last year's battle to lower the drinking age.
The measure, sponsored by the lawmaker who headed up the drinking age
campaign, exempts from fines all those who contributed $200 or more to a
ballot proposal before Oct. 15 without registering as a ballot committee as
required by law.
It has been estimated that 300 bar owners violated the law when con-
tributing last year to the 19 is Fair Committee which sought unsuccessfully
to lower the legal drinking age from 21 to 19.
The Michigan Council on Alcohol Problems, which supports the higher
drinking age, said 130 liquor license holders have been fined just over
$100,000, or an average of $750 each.
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