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Prosecutor’s Office alert. A trap on the eve of Christmas BANK OF ALBANIA AR 298131 1000 ONE THOUSAND LEKË SKENDERBEU 1405–1468 On page 6

The 28th victim this year The police officer was killed during an operation to apprehend a wanted man. The blue uniforms faced a person more heavily armed than they were. The victim, 36-year-old Selim Halili, was shot dead, while his colleague Ismail Kovaçi is at the Military Hospital On page 5

OPINION The alibi for the death penalty Elsa BALLAURI Among other things, the death penalty. At first glance, it seems that this very important subject can be addressed with the greatest ease. For quite some time, this issue has been discussed from time to time in Albania; interviews with citizens are conducted on TV, and whenever the Council of Europe intervenes to help with the signing of the International Charter, the media stirs, and so do the NGOs. After a first look, it becomes apparent that everyone is hesitant, somewhat bewildered, and unwilling to discuss this issue. I think that the death penalty in our country should be opened up as an important and wide-ranging debate, and not remain a dark matter in our subconscious, outside the knowledge of experts and society. Only what we fear and push away. Only by having a debate that is not merely for show will we be able to bring to light the reasons and lack of reasons behind a painful reality and hasten the right solutions for the future. At present, Albania is experiencing a harsh political, social, and spiritual reality. The state pretends to exist, and the government is incapable of showing the way toward possible stability. The catastrophes are, in fact, so great that only a people accustomed to catastrophes throughout their lives is no longer struck by them. And suddenly, amid all this chaos, the death penalty is being discussed, and it seems serious, inflated, manipulative; it seems that this is all Albanian justice lacks—whether or not Albanian justice sentences people to death—let it bear the burden. Judging the death penalty as an issue involving the government’s actions against the individual, I think this is not the solution that could stop—this is not the solution that could stop crimes and ... Continued on page 5

Above the cabinet, small flakes of white paint can still be seen. The emptied shelves give off the old smell of medicines, while someone has hung a white apron behind the door. This is the only semblance of care in many of the infirmaries or ruined rooms where prisoners are treated. Conditions inside the prisons are not much different from the unstable situation beyond the iron doors. Drugs, theft and the rule of the strong seem to have settled firmly in our prisons. The prisoners are in there simply to serve a sentence; no one can be bothered about anything else. On page 15

The alibi of