THE ATTACKER OF JOHN PAUL COULD GO FREE IN AN AMNESTY

ISTANBUL, Dec. 10 — The man who shot Pope John Paul II is among about
35,000 inmates who might qualify for release from overcrowded Turkish
prisons under an amnesty bill approved by the legislature.

Furthermore, former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, a leader of the
country's Islamic movement, would avoid serving a one-year sentence for
sedition for challenging the secular government in a 1994 speech. He is
supposed to start the sentence next month.

Parliament approved the legislation 297 to 72 late on Friday despite deep
divisions over the issue. The bill requires the approval of President Ahmet
Necdet Sezer, and people close to him said it was not certain that he would
sign.

By reducing prison sentences by 10 years, the bill would free nearly half
of the country's 72,000 inmates.

The beneficiaries would include murderers, robbers and hundreds of
political prisoners.

Some death sentences would also be commuted, though none have been carried
out in Turkey since 1984. However, the bill specifies that terrorists will
still face the death penalty, which means that Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed
Kurdish rebel leader, could be executed.

Rapists, corrupt government officials, drug traffickers and people
convicted of certain crimes against the state, including Kurdish guerrillas
and leftist and Islamic militants, also would not benefit from the amnesty.

Whether Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot the pope, would qualify is unclear. He
was extradited to Turkey in June after being pardoned in Italy for the 1981
attack in St. Peter's Square in Rome. He had served nearly 20 years in
prison. He is now serving a 10-year term for the murder of a newspaper
editor in 1979 and is facing trial for armed robbery.

His lawyer, Sevket Can Ozbay, told The Associated Press that he would try
to get his client released, though Mr. Agca would most likely remain in
prison pending a decision in the robbery case.

While the government said the amnesty was necessary to improve conditions,
families of crime victims and some human rights advocates criticized the bill.

Ayten Arslan assailed the prospect of freedom for a man who stabbed her
20-year-old daughter Nemit to death. The man's 26-year sentence was reduced
to 9.5 years, and he would qualify for the amnesty.

"I will never forgive him and the state doesn't have the right to forgive
him," Mrs. Arslan said at a news conference here before the bill was passed.