Gerard Fuchs, National Secretary for International Relations of the French Socialist Party, received Maqo Lakrori, a member of the Presidium of the Socialist Party of Albania. Dr. Lakrori spoke about the programme, statute and activities of the PSSH. Gerard Fuchs and Maqo Lakrori exchanged views on the situation in the Balkans, and particularly on events in the former Yugoslavia. The meeting took place on Friday, 25.02.1994, at the headquarters of the French Socialist Party in Paris. Press and Information Office of the PSSH

Yesterday, under the chairmanship of Namik Dokle, deputy chairman of the Socialist Party and chairman of its parliamentary group, a meeting of the General Governing Committee and the party’s group of deputies was held. The agenda included an analysis of the country’s political situation on the eve of the unlawful trial of the chairman of the SP and deputy of the People’s Assembly, Fatos Nano, and the determination of the Socialist Party’s political positions on this situation. Namik Dokle, deputy chairman of the SP and chairman of its parliamentary group, spoke about the political situation in the country and the party’s immediate tasks in addressing it. The meeting then discussed and approved the declaration of the General Governing Committee and the declaration of its parliamentary group on the above-mentioned issues. At the end of the meeting, concrete measures for the party’s work at the centre and at the grassroots to achieve the objectives set out in the above declarations were discussed.

DECLARATION OF THE GENERAL GOVERNING COMMITTEE OF THE PSSH – Holding the trial on 5 March is yet another violation of the constitutional law on human rights and the Code of Criminal Procedure. – After a long odyssey, today’s Machiavellian authorities of the Democratic Party have announced the conclusion of the investigation and set 5 March as the date for the trial of the chairman of the Socialist Party and deputy of the People’s Assembly, Fatos Nano. It has now become clear to the entire Albanian democratic public, as well as to Europe’s highest democratic institutions, that the grave violations of the Code of Criminal Procedure and of human rights and freedoms show that the aim is not to put former Prime Minister Nano on trial, but the leader of Albania’s largest opposition force. Members and supporters of the Socialist Party, as well as all genuine democratic forces in the other parties, have followed with concern, patriotism and democratic maturity what is being done to exert pressure on the court: Selami and his phalanx, backed by RD and RTV, have badly compromised the scenario and are applying pressure and dictation; the Chairman of the State Control Service is assuming the powers of the Prosecutor General; the Constitutional Court considers the violation of the provisions governing the arrest of a deputy to be normal, and so on. Albanian justice, and with it democracy, has been put to a major test. The institutionalisation of totalitarian practices at the expense of the rule of law is a blow to democracy and a victory for the state of coercion. We call on the judicial authorities to acknowledge and apply the law, and the law alone; not to submit to the obsessive orders of the party in power, and not to issue a certificate of temporary victory to those who, with the “Nano Case”, have signed their own defeat. Whoever unjustly denies others their freedom has definitively denied their own freedom. We demand that justice defend the truth, and the truth alone. Whoever violates the law today will answer to it tomorrow. This is an axiom confirmed by history. The PSSH calls on its members and supporters, as always, to be cultured yet resolute, measured yet fighters for democracy, mature yet unbowed by diktat, law-abiding and denouncers of illegality. We call on all other democratic forces in the country, including those within the PD, following the example of the 23 deputies from four parliamentary groups (PSSH, PSD, AD, PDNJ) and the hundreds of thousands of people who have signed the petition, and in response to Europe’s highest democratic institutions, to join their voices in protest and say no to the antidemocratic and unlawful actions of those in power in the “Nano Case”, which to date has been pursued through brutal violations of the law. The General Governing Committee of the SP declares 4 March a “Day of General Protest” in defence of freedom and human rights, on which rallies, gatherings, meetings, petitions and protests directed at the institutions of the country and of Europe will be held. The General Governing Committee of the PSSH addresses the High Council of Justice, its Chairman, the trial panel and its chairman, requesting that the “Nano Case” be returned to the Prosecutor’s Office, which, after conducting a full, comprehensive and objective investigation in accordance with the law, should decide whether or not it is to be sent to trial, while first lifting the arrest measure against deputy Fatos Nano. General Governing Committee of the SP. …that the democracies of Europe have now made it clear that the serious violations of the Code of Criminal Procedure and to try Prime Minister Nano, patriotism and democratic culture what the farce of today’s government is trying to carry out—that farce which is basing its rule on corruption, on psychological terror over the opening of files, on the tactic of paralyzing the opposition, and on threats and propaganda deception at home and abroad. Support for the «Nano Case» is a matter of principle; it is support for democratic thought against anti-democracy, support for freedom of alternative thought, support for the law against lawlessness, support for the rule of law against a state seeking to impose political revenge with a clan-chief’s mentality, support for European democratic institutions, support for fundamental human rights and freedoms, and support for social peace against the division they seek to impose. The «Nano Case» is entirely prejudged. The serious violations concerning the manner of the arrest, affecting the investigation and the changing of charges, and most recently the setting of the trial date without the accused and the lawyers having examined the case file, lay bare the failed scenario of the Berisha regime. The coordination between the institution of the President, the parliamentary majority, the government, the justice authorities, the Democratic Party and their spokespersons, RD and Radio Television, in staging the disgraceful «Nano Case», is now all too evident and documented. It is enough to recall that Berisha, in his role as Chairman of the High Council of Justice, while approving violations of the Code of Criminal Procedure, contradicted President Berisha’s violations concerning the trial, thereby fueling the parliament’s propaganda, and openly refused to acknowledge it; Arbnori concealed it from the European Parliament; the Parliamentary Assemblies of the Inter-Parliamentary Union examined the «Nano Case»; Brozi, at a press conference, was forc— ...ed to address the People’s Assembly under accusation, my assessment of the Court, as the constitutional institution that administers justice, and to obtain acknowledgment confirming that the law is being respected by the trial panel. I recall that the latter is legally required to state, from the outset, its lawful and impartial position on meeting the legal requirements and conditions for the defense, which have been officially and publicly made known, beginning with my being allowed to examine the materials in the investigation file, etc., which the prosecution has arbitrarily disregarded. Taking into consideration all the circumstances surrounding the public and private conduct that preceded and accompanied my imprisonment, as part of the state’s policy of persecution against me, and the political pressure exerted for this purpose by leaders of the party in power on the justice authorities; Recalling all the constitutional and procedural violations of law, as an expression of the systematic prejudgment of the case, to the detriment of the truth, by the investigative team, the Tirana prosecutor, the Prosecutor General and those courts which, acting on orders, have failed to put a stop to unlawful actions up to this stage; Repeating the official denunciation

5 March 1994 is the date set by the Chairman of the Tirana Court for the start of the court hearing in the “Nano Case”. On the 218th day of my unlawful imprisonment, after more than 5,200 hours in strict isolation for clearly political reasons, I declare that I will appear at this institution, accompanied by my defence lawyers, Mr. Përrim Sanxhaku and Mr. Agim Tirana, to express publicly, as chairman of the PSSH and an accused deputy of the People’s Assembly, my assessment of the Court as the sole constitutional institution that delivers justice, and to receive the same confirmation from the trial panel that it will respect the law. I remind the latter that the law obliges it, at the very outset, to state its lawful and impartial position on the fulfilment of the legal requests and conditions for the defence, on the public exposure of state arbitrariness, and on the violation of my rights as a deputy—rights also recognised by specialised international bodies, but not by their equivalent bodies controlled by the authorities in Albania. Without identifying Justice with predetermined names or with individuals known for their unconstitutional submission to the political and state authorities that continue to violate the independence of the judiciary in Albania, I, Fatos Nano, People’s Assembly, declare that my appearance on 5.3.1994 before the trial panel chaired by Mr. Agim Bendo, Chairman of the Tirana Court and a member of the High Council of Justice, is essential as an expression of its independence in the face of the circumstances and the political dimension that the “Nano Case” has assumed inside and outside the country. Only on this basis will it be possible to put an end to the prosecution’s speculation to date, whose consequences extend beyond the infringement of my rights and interests, and it will become possible to establish definitively that; Furthermore, I stress that the Court’s prior fulfilment of the legal requests and conditions for my defence will become possible to establish definitively that; First, the accusation does not stand because it was constructed on statist-communist concepts by the State Control Service and supported by the prosecution on the basis of the Stalinist Constitution and codes of the 1970s. Second, the government I headed during the period 22.2.1991–4.6.1991 acted on the basis of contemporary concepts, seeking to build—not destroy—proper partnership relations with friendly Italy, the European Community and the West as a whole, whose assistance and support have been and remain vital to our democratic transition. In light of the above, my relations with the trial panel will be proper and based on the law, and my principled position towards it will depend on its response to the above requests and to my lawyers’ legal claims, thereby demonstrating in practice its failure to act in the full exercise of its authority beyond the court. FATOS NANO Chairman of the PSSH, deputy of the People’s Assembly Tirana Prison, cell 47 1.3.94

Today marks exactly seven months since— Today marks exactly seven months since the— b—osja of the chairman of the SP, comrade Fatos Nano. These have been seven months of fierce political struggle in prison, outside prison and outside Albania. Who won this battle? 1. The attack on the SP, so that it would be shaken, cowed and perhaps even embra— and isolated in the international arena. 2. The political elimination of Fatos Nano through a legal process cloaked in slander, deception and propaganda noise and— (Continued on page 3)

– The deputy editor-in-chief of «Koha Jonë», Martin Leka, is sentenced to one year and six months – – The prosecutor... (Not quite him) set fire to the pile of firewood where, for two days, “the free press” had been placed. – The prosecutor... (not quite him) set fire to the pile of firewood where “the free press” had been placed for two days. – The state prosecution’s defence considered Francjan and Leka factors, and wished to have guilt established, with six months in prison for Francjan and one year for Leka. – “A ridiculous claim,” Martin Leka said after the prosecutor’s claim. At around 11:10 on Sunday, for the third time, the prison van appeared in front of the court ... For a few moments, Francaj and Leka ... caricature ... in ... It is the defence’s turn to speak ... One of the prosecutor Adrian Leka’s ... and this is clear ... written secretly, ... This Martin Leka ... (Continued on page 4)

– Fatos Nano has been imprisoned because he is the chairman of the Socialist Party. – The Berisha regime has failed to conduct a trial that could establish a certificate of guilt. Weeping, because according to a carefully prepared scheme, the Three—Nano, Berisha, Arbnori, Brozi, plus the Serre-Selami party’s members of parliament, make up what the Resolution of the European Parlia— ment called the «Berisha Regime», in its answer to Europe’s demand. All the efforts to inform—p—ublic meetings, only after the forceful publications u— European, the successful labeling given to today’s great regime, which was created to establish— (Continued on page 3)

Today, Tuesday, March 1, 1994, at 17:00, a meeting will be held at the «Asllan Rusi» («Partizani») Sports Palace in Tirana to explain the tasks of the Second National Conference of the PSSH. Those attending this meeting will include members of the People’s Assembly, municipal councilors of the capital, and members and supporters of the Socialist Party. The Governing Committee of the Tirana City PS.