Man Wanted In Papal Shooting Extradited

A Turkish man who allegedly ordered the shootings of Pope John Paul II and a prominent Turkish journalist was returned Saturday from Switzerland.

Oral Celik had spent four years in a Swiss jail for drug smuggling.

He is wanted in Turkey on charges of conspiring to kill liberal newspaper editor Abdi Ipekci. A prosecutor said he plans to seek a life sentence.

Mehmet Ali Agca, convicted of shooting and wounding the pope in St. Peter’s Square in 1981 and of killing Ipekci in 1979, testified that Celik collaborated in both attacks.

Agca is serving a life term in an Italian prison.