SERGEI Antonov, the Bulgarian man accused of trying to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981 but later released for lack of evidence, was found dead in his home today, an official said.“Antonov died a natural death. The hospital confirmed it to us,” an interior ministry official told Agence France-Presse.
Doctors said Antonov, 58, had died several days ago. He was found after a neighbour noticed she had not seen him for a couple of days, the BGNES news agency reported.
Antonov, a former manager in the Rome office of Balkan Air, was arrested in 1982 for complicity in the 1981 attack against Pope John Paul II in Saint Peter's Square.
Mehmet Ali Agca, the man arrested on the spot and sentenced for the attack, told police that Antonov had given him the pistol he fired against the Pope and that the Bulgarian secret services were implicated.
Antonov was held for almost four years in Italy, only to be acquitted for lack of evidence in 1986.
He returned to Sofia and lived alone on a Government pension.
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