The case of «Nano» at the center of public attention: Tirana continues to be full of police, while the indictment by Dervishi and Qeleshi is revealed to be entirely legally hollow. Judge Bendo in the role of prosecutor. FATOS NANO DECLARES: «I will not fall into your schemes and I will not become an accomplice with you. I demand, and will continue to demand forcefully, that you create the legal opportunity for me to speak.» Just three days were enough for the political character of the trial against Fatos Nano to be openly revealed before everyone’s eyes. The case of «Nano» at the center of public attention: Tirana continues to be full of police, while the indictment by Dervishi and Qeleshi is revealed to be entirely legally hollow. Judge Bendo in the role of prosecutor. JUST THREE DAYS WERE ENOUGH FOR THE POLITICAL CHARACTER OF THE TRIAL AGAINST FATOS NANO TO BE OPENLY REVEALED BEFORE EVERYONE’S EYES FATOS NANO DECLARES: «I will not fall into your schemes and I will not become an accomplice with you. I demand, and will continue to demand forcefully, that you create the legal opportunity for me to speak.»

Yesterday at midday. The Party Presidium

FATOS NANO declares at the session the day before yesterday Yesterday, in cooperation with my esteemed lawyers, we presented our legal claims concerning the violations of these rights; therefore, give explanations. The prosecutor Gjukaj has been assessed as having such knowledge that he has managed to win because he has now entered into the case and will—

Yesterday at midday, the Presidium of the Socialist Party of Albania organized a press conference at its headquarters regarding the political situation in the country and the trial of the Chairman of the Socialist Party, Fatos Nano. A limited number of journalists was expected because they were following the trial that had begun several days earlier. But the opposite happened. Numerous journalists were present in the hall at the Socialist Party headquarters, before whom appeared the party’s two deputy chairmen, Namik Dokle and Luan Hajdaraga, the SP spokesperson Bashkim Zeneli, and the jurist Fehmi Abdiu. At the beginning of the press conference, the first deputy chairman and a chairman of its parliamentary group, Namik Dokle, read a statement by the Presidium of the Socialist Party concerning the latest developments in the country’s political situation that had accompanied the trial of the Socialist Party Chairman, Fatos Nano. Then the aforementioned comrades answered the journalists’ many questions. What does the Socialist Party mean by strongly opposing the violation of human rights, as stated in the communiqué? Police violence, psychological pressure and terror, and strategies of tension—and opposing them by legitimate democratic means, in every possible way, from the last [unclear] of Albania to the capital of Europe, Strasbourg, from the last city in Albania to Washington. So we will exercise all these democratic rights that belong to us. If the police state continues to violate these rights, we will continue to fight by legal means; and the more this power sinks into its police mire, the worse it is for it. It is certainly bad that the state’s sinking into this mire is greatly harming democracy; it is a—

I am also not the one who does not want to give explanations. I considered prosecutor Gjukaj to have such knowledge that he managed to win because he has now entered into the case, and [unclear] when he said that only one investigative session had impressed him, because I too remember that session as constructive; in fact, we spoke without a lawyer, and this shows that I did not hold back even in the absence of a defence— Yesterday, in cooperation with my esteemed lawyers, I presented our legal claims regarding the violations of these rights; therefore, I reiterate once again: create the conditions for me to speak and express myself, while acknowledging, alongside the judicial procedural rights you mention, the investigative procedural rights that were denied. I repeat: these are procedural guarantees that were granted to me. So I am not I considered prosecutor Gjukaj to have such knowledge that he case, and [unclear] when he said that only one investigative session had impressed him, because I too remember that session as constructive; in fact, we spoke without a lawyer, and this shows that I did not hold back even in the absence of a defence— (Continued on page 4)

FATOS NANO declares at yesterday’s hearing 1. As I emphasized yesterday as well, the accusation is in Somalia, whereas the aid was delivered in Albania. 2. You, Mr. Presiding Judge, continue to confirm our suspicions that the trial is prejudged by openly and repeatedly taking the prosecution’s side, even violating procedural rules. 3. Although you, Mr. Presiding Judge, have decided—or decided in advance—to sentence not only me but also my lawyers. The only parties that have so far failed to respect the public’s right to information about the truth, contrary to the reminder you gave about this issue at the beginning of the trial, are the press officers of the Tirana court and the Tirana correspondent of “Voice of America.” Therefore, given all these circumstances, I am obliged to remind you and reiterate my now well-known, previously stated position: my procedural status in this trial as the accused is that I have severed all relations with the judicial panel. Therefore (Continued on page 4)

AFTER THE FIRST THREE DAYS OF THE TRIAL: ALTHOUGH FATOS NANO IS NOT TAKING PART IN THE PROCEEDINGS, THE TRIAL IS IN HIS FAVOR — The cards are burning in the hands of prosecutors Qeshi and Gjokutaj. — The other three arrested men, namely Sokrat Plaka, former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Robert Çjini and Hasan Halko, refute the prosecution’s accusation and prove that they have no connection whatsoever with the Nano case. — Procedural violations by the prosecution continue to be denounced during the judicial investigation. The trial is at its third point. It was staged as a police operation: an armored car with black windows, journalists behind it, arrests, the courthouse surrounded by security—presumably for something like that. But the courtroom? No. Yet during this hearing it became [unclear]? There are others, leaders, for whom something can be done safely, without fear. But if, during this, we disclose the state secret, will future trials not be held there? The others enter the courtroom, point— (Continued on page 6)

“Under the very severe pressures of the investigation, I do not remember what I may have said.” We recall that the defendant is not held responsible for statements made during the investigation. Legally, he is answerable only for what he says before the judicial panel.

«I will not be an obstacle to your [text unclear] and for you to address the “supreme” Council of Justice by telephone or directly, to tell it where you are managing to make the defendant Nano take part in the trial. This is connected with my principled position of not becoming a partner or accomplice in the serious legal and procedural violations that are being allowed.» (Excerpt from Fatos Nano’s statement before the judicial panel on 7.3.1994)

In the harsh climate of psychological terror and police violence against the opposition, which in recent days reached the dimensions of a siege and an undeclared state of emergency, the trial against the Chairman of the Socialist Party, Member of Parliament Fatos Nano, opened on 5 March. The unlawful arrest, the human degradation, the state, by sacrificing and trampling the citizen’s freedom, the dignity of the political opposition, the independence of the judicial bodies. The response of the three powers, the legislative, executive and judiciary, to the European Parliament Resolution was the most ominous challenge posed to democracy in Albania, on the eve of the extinguishing of its request for admission to the Council... the violation of procedures, the repeated alteration of the charges, the pressure and psychological terror against Fatos Nano, culminated in the gravest violation of constitutional human rights that can be carried out in a country that has written even the first letter of democracy. Member of Parliament and citizen Fatos Nano was brutally denied the criminal procedural guarantees set out in Article 8 of the constitutional law on «The Fundamental Rights and Freedoms of Citizens». This article states categorically and unequivocally that «no one may be deprived of the right to be informed immediately and in detail of the charge brought against him and to have sufficient time and facilities to prepare his defence». As is known, this happened immediately after strong reactions in favour of the «Nano Case» from many European figures and institutions, and especially after the European Parliament resolution, which called for the immediate release of Fatos Nano and his trial as a free citizen, without the state’s political shackles, or, in the resolution’s terms, without the shackles of the «Berisha regime». Instead of a loyal response, and moreover a lawful one, the opposite path was chosen: the path of tension and police violence, the path of constitutional violations. Justice submitted to political pressure from the … state, to democracy in Albania, on the eve of the extinction of its request to be admitted to the Council of Europe. This action, alongside the indefinite postponement of the adoption of the Constitution, expresses the tendency of certain political forces to keep the country as far as possible from the European family, so that it can serve as a bargaining chip in Balkan entanglements. Making this assessment, the Socialist Party simultaneously feels a political obligation to strongly oppose violations of human rights and freedoms, because respect for them is the basic condition for integration into democracy. To this end, it declared 4 March a day of protest in defence of these principles. Wherever one experiences Albanian realities, one can clearly see that these actions show not the slightest sign of extremism. We protest because we are in agreement with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. We protest because we respect the resolutions of the European Parliament. We protest because we consider the US Department of State’s assessments of the state of human rights to be very realistic. And no one has the right to oppose us on this, because democracy is no one’s monopoly, but a right and an obligation for everyone. But the Albanian police state has not yet understood this. On the contrary. To the Socialist Party’s demands, [text ends] meet. will continue to fight by legal means; and the deeper this government sinks into its own police-state mire, the worse it is for it. It is bad enough that the state’s sinking into this mire is greatly damaging to democracy; it is also greatly damaging to the Democratic Party itself, which is losing the few chances it has left as a real political force in Albania. If Fatos Nano is convicted, will he continue to be chairman of the Socialist Party? From the very beginning of this trial, it was confirmed that Fatos Nano is someone who is to be tried and politically condemned; indeed, more accurately, it was said that he had been politically pre-condemned. His sentence was predetermined in wave No. 4, as Fatos Nano said in court. Given that he is politically condemned, and given that the prosecution’s procedural violations are being denounced. — The prosecution’s farce—a double-six in the hands of Agim Bendo. (Continued on page 5)

— So far, Arben Qeshi is the trial witness, as is former President Ramiz Alia. — In the courtroom, with hands? There were more police officers and journalists than witnesses from the families of the accused. — He will be summoned on March 11.