FIGURES PUBLISHED / The test ahead of the elections On page 9

ERIETA MURDERED

And wins against the journalist Since 11 August 1999, Ndre Legisi—then a senior official in the Socialist Party—has used every means to have our crime reporter, Artan Hoxha, convicted. And yesterday he achieved a victory with the ruling of a judge selected by him personally, sentencing the journalist (in the latter’s absence) to 30,000 new lekë. In the article published on 11 August, the name of the former Secretary of State for Public Order appeared, according to the list of SHIR leaders, as “implicated in smuggling.” Before clarifying everything that has happened since 11 August last year and how he managed to bring the case to trial at first instance, we want once again to remind the current leaders of the party that is in power today that the “Legisi case” can very well help them understand the phenomenon they themselves denounce every day: “Corruption in the Judiciary.” Faced with this socialist politician’s systematic interference to have the prosecutor replaced because he ruled in the journalist’s favor, as well as Legisi’s questionable connections with judge Gjoni, the leaders of the PS and the executive can more easily understand what it means when politics pressures the Judiciary. The newspaper, steadfast and convinced of the truthfulness of the informa-

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Paradox . Edmond TUPJA. One evening, when I had just come home tired from work, I called my mother to ask how her day had gone. Among other things, she told me that something truly strange had happened to her. While she was waiting for a bus or a minibus to take her to her sister’s in New Tirana, a car had gently pulled up and stopped in front of her, ... Continued on page 13