The Nano file is on his desk G. Pashko: Nano’s release, a condition for social peace The 50 MPs had sought a resolution of the Nano case at the President’s offices. They did not seek an answer from their paediatrician counterparts regarding the response of the head of state. After the case of the socialist leader had completed its spiral through the Albanian justice system, which delivered the verdict everyone knows, they sought to knock on the last door the law allowed them to approach. The MPs asked the President to state his position on an issue that at least 700,000 Albanians have signed. The “Nano file” is now, among other places, on Berisha’s desk. He, and he alone, can have the final word. Page 2, by Andi Bushati

Presidential decree also eases the sentences of the other four members of the minority As had been announced, Berisha dons the robe of Father Christmas. On the most festive day for the Orthodox, the President of the Republic has granted the first concession to the five members of the minority. For the first time, the Ministry of Justice, the Court of Cassation, the General Prosecutor’s Office and local government jointly proposed to the President pardons or reductions in the sentences of specific individuals. In yesterday’s decree, the President of Albania pardoned 15 prisoners and reduced the sentences of 52 people convicted to prison terms ranging from 5 months to 5 years. This had been expected and anticipated in Tirana’s political circles: the President’s signature included the five citizens of Greek origin who had been convicted in September of this year of spying for Greece. One of them is released from prison. He is Irakli Sirmo, 42, who had also served 15 years in prison under the communist regime. The Tirana Court of Appeal had been more lenient towards Sirmo, reducing his sentence by 2 years, compared with a one-year reduction for the other four OMONIA activists (the organization of Greeks in Albania). Today, President Berisha reduced Kosta Qirjakos’s sentence by 2 years—he too had been convicted of agitation and propaganda during the dictatorship—and reduced the sentences of the other three by one year each. What remains to be served by the OMONIA leaders, following the general amnesty of a month ago, can now be counted in months. President Berisha describes the pardon of the five citizens of Greek origin as an expression of Albania’s determination to contribute to reducing tensions in the region and to good neighbourly relations. Meanwhile, the case known as the “OMONIA Case” will soon be reviewed by the Court of Cassation, and given the warm breeze that has been blowing through Albanian-Greek relations in recent days, there may be good news for Albanian citizens of Greek origin.

Then we must prepare to go to new elections in the spring ... it would be necessary for the next Parliament to pass a law stating: “For the next 100 years, it shall be forbidden to entrust the government officials who brought this disastrous winter upon the Albanian people with even the smallest key to a government office. Forbidden!” Page 3, by Frrok Çupi

Koha Jonë wishes you a Merry Christmas Today, also the 1995 calendar

—Has Meksi’s majority ever fallen apart? ... The Albanian prime minister’s majority has “fallen apart” several times, but... Meksi is not Berlusconi!... Page 3