Pope Gunman To Stay In Jail Until 2010

Prosecutors decided Monday that the man who shot Pope John Paul II must stay in prison until 2010, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Mehmet Ali Agca was returned Friday to the high-security Kartal Prison after an appeals court ruled he must serve more time on his sentence for killing a prominent Turkish journalist in 1979 and other crimes. He was released from the prison Jan. 12.

A panel of prosecutors on Monday said Agca, 48, will remain in prison until Jan. 18, 2010.

Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, responding to widespread criticism of Agca's release, had asked an appeals court to review the case, and the court ruled Friday that his release was a mistake.

Agca had served 19 years in an Italian prison for shooting the pope in 1981 and then 5 1/2 years of a 10-year sentence in Turkey for murdering journalist Abdi Ipekci.

Agca had served five months for Ipekci's killing before escaping from prison in 1979. He was also convicted in 2000 for a factory robbery and vehicle theft.