mehmet ali ağca (born january 9, 1958) is a turkish criminal. he is known for shooting and wounding pope john paul ii on may 13, 1981. for this assassination attempt, he served 19 years of his life sentence in prison in italy for attempted murder. in 2000, he was extradicted to turkey, where he was convicted of two robberies he committed in 1979. he was sentenced to seven years four months for the robberies, and continued serving his sentence for the murder of abdi i̇pekçi (1929-1979), a left-wing journalist whom he shot. ağca has described himself as a mercenary with no political orientation. he has made many different claims about the shooting of the pope. he used to be a member of the turkish ultra-nationalist grey wolves organization. he was released on january 18, 2010 and diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder.