Gunman mourning pope's death

ANKARA, Turkey -- Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who seriously wounded the pope during a 1981 assassination attempt, is mourning the pope's death from his Turkish prison cell, his brother said Sunday.

Adnan Agca said his brother told him Wednesday in Istanbul's Kartal prison that he hoped the pope lived a bit longer.

"I know that he is in mourning. I feel that he is in deep sorrow over the death of the pope, who was like a brother to him," Adnan Agca said.

The pope forgave Mehmet Ali Agca for shooting him in St. Peter's Square and met him in his Italian prison cell in 1983. Agca was extradited to Turkey in 2000 after almost 20 years behind bars in Italy for the shooting.

"They had declared brotherhood when the pope visited him in prison," Adnan Agca said of the 1983 meeting. "He was Agca's brother. Would not you be sad if you had lost your brother?"