Mehmet Ali Ağca (born January 9, 1958) is a Turkish assassin who shot an wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981. After serving 19 years of incarceration in Italy, he was deported to Turkey, where he is serving another life sentence for the murder of Abdi İpekçi, a left-wing journalist, in 1979. Ağca has described himself as a mercenary with no political orientation, although he is known to have been a member of the Turkish ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves organization. On 2 May 2008 he has asked to be awarded Polish citizenship as he wishes to spend the final years of his life in Poland.