ANKARA: Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill pope John Paul II in 1981, said he would prove he is the Messiah through Vatican documents, in a written statement released through his lawyers.

“I, Agca, will prove in two years’ time that I am the one and only, eternal Messiah through historical documents from the Vatican,” Agca, 52, said in the hand-written statement.

“I will prove through definitive documents that the entire world will be destroyed in this century,” read the statement signed “Mehmet Ali Agca, the Messiah”.

Agca, believed by many to be mentally disturbed, was released from a Turkish prison on Monday after serving nearly three decades behind bars.

He was a 23-year-old militant of the notorious far-right Grey Wolves movement, on the run from Turkish justice, when he resurfaced in Saint Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981, and fired on the pope, seriously wounding him.

The motive for the attack, which landed Agca in an Italian prison, remains a mystery.

Extradited to Turkey in 2000 after Italy pardoned him, Agca was convicted of the murder of prominent journalist Abdi Ipekci, two armed robberies and escaping from prison, crimes all dating back to the 1970s.