FATOS NANO goes to the Court of Appeal on Monday to give the Albanian leadership one more chance - The beginning of it all, the report of the complaint filed by member Cela, and the accomplices—other blacksmiths—the cover for what is entirely political: the “NANO AFFAIR” - On Monday, another Albanian court will stand between good and evil. On Monday, the Court of Appeal in Tirana will be at the epicenter of public opinion, under the scrutiny and attention of many people, many uniformed and plainclothes police officers, many journalists, and many politicians. This court will add to the crisis that has gripped the Albanian leadership. The leader of the largest opposition party, the Socialist Party, will appear there as a political prisoner: Fatos Nano. After almost 11 months in prison, accused of “receiving envelopes” from Blerim Cela in the Albanian Parliament, he was accused by the Tirana Prosecutor’s Office, which charged him with abuse of office and forgery of official documents; still further, accused of large-scale forgery, abuse of office and forgery of official documents, Fatos Nano was sentenced about a month ago for “intentional indirect appropriation for the benefit of third parties.” His trial, inflated by the astronomical figure of 9 million dollars allegedly embezzled by Fatos Nano, degenerated into a farce, into an unprecedented case in the history of justice, which will serve generations of jurists as a reference point for how a politician can be eliminated. Why is Fatos Nano going to the Court of Appeal? He is going to give the panel of judges the opportunity to face the matter, naturally placing it before good and its opposite. He is going to give “Albanian justice” a chance to wash away the sins committed in the field of the flagrant violation of human rights, naturally after first confessing; he is going to give the country’s leadership another opportunity to face the question, “Why is Fatos Nano in prison and the culprits the Democratic Party?” He is going to give the chairman of the High Council of Justice another opportunity to put an end to the scandalous servility and instrumentalization of the Albanian justice system, using it as a tool of revenge and the political elimination of opponents and political alternatives. He is going to give the President of the Republic, Mr. Sali Berisha, one more chance to renew his slogan, “opponents, but valued,” which, transformed into “opponents, but enemies,” is becoming a code. Finally, he is going to give the Albanian leadership—and, beyond that, the Albanian people—the opportunity to enter civilized Europe, putting an end once and for all to flagrant violations of human rights and uncivilized acts of political revenge. ERION BRAÇE deputy Fatos Nano, is arrested. After the resignation of two prosecutors who had been investigating the “Nano case” and had been appointed only a few hours earlier, Arben Qeleshi and Fatos Dervishi, who came from the Ministry of Public Order, signed the arrest warrant for people’s deputy Fatos Nano, accused—unlike in Blerim Çela’s report—of abuse of office and falsification of official documents. The repeated changes to the charges culminated in the charge of embezzlement in the courtroom on 5 March 1994. Even though you do not have the civic courage to face yourselves, I agree to stand before you, because the law stands between us. (Continued on page 3)

ELECTION CAMPAIGN A “COLD WINTER” FOR THE DP IN LIBOFSHË - Messrs. Selami, Malasi, Shehu, Spahiu and Co. take with them the coldness and indifference of the villagers - As the month of May has arrived in Libofshë and the other villages as far as the Adriatic shore, despite its beauty and warmth, for the DP and its party and government leaders it has perhaps become more than an icy “winter.” The election campaign for choosing the commune chairman has led them—including the DP chairman, Mr. Selami; the deputy speaker of the People’s Assembly, Mr. Malasi; the Party’s secretary general, Mr. Shehu; the chairman of the parliamentary group, Mr. Spahia; and even the chairwoman of the Democratic Women’s Forum, Mrs. Flutura Hasko—to leave aside all the Party’s other concerns, everything connected with implementing the DP-style economic reform, and come to Libofshë to persuade the people of that area to vote for the DP, because otherwise “Eduardi has no chance of becoming chairman.” “The Party is finished.” But in Libofshë, although these gentlemen hold the reins of central power and can do whatever they want with the “villagers,” nobody in the surrounding area and commune is paying them any attention. This coldness and indifference has upset them so much that, at a street corner (during an intimate conversation), Mr. Selami is said to have remarked: “This people is impossible to reform.” There, in the center of ... In another place, Tirana, five or six young people, seeing the Speaker of Parliament “stuck” there, furious and upset, told him jokingly: “It’s so cold here among us for the DP that Edi, even though he has them in his hands, hasn’t taken off his shoe?” Whatever he tried, Mr. Selami was forced to leave for villages far from the center, eventually ending up at a dairy, where he watched his luck run out as he came away with a mountain of fresh cheese, and then returned the way he had come. The Party chairman might not have turned back, but what had happened to the secretary general, Mr. Tritan Shehu—who had narrowly escaped being “dunked” in the reservoir after a quarrel with some young people—made Selami turn back when he heard about Tritan’s experience. An unpleasant incident also took place with the “father” of Parliament, Mr. Tomorr Malasi. In truth, he was delighted when about 30 people approached him. He felt more important than the other party and state leader, indeed more competent at winning people over to himself and the DP during the election campaign. But in Libofshë, it seems the pear has its stem at the back. Before Mr. Malasi could open his session (not a parliamentary one) (Continued on page 2)

People no longer judge the government by Bupapa’s television propaganda - Remarks by MP Musa Ulqini in the inter-

In the Court of Appeal, we will prove his innocence with complete evidence will prove his innocence with complete evidence In the Court of Appeal, we will prove fully and convincingly that Fatos Nano is innocent. The decision of the Tirana District Court is manifestly unjust. It is the result of the manipulation of evidence by the Prosecutor’s Office and the District Court. We will also prove with documents that the Italian aid amounted to 20 billion lire and was priced within market limits: 8 billion and 84 million lire during the period of the Nano Government, 11 billion lire during the period of the Government of Stability, and the continuation of this aid under the contract concluded in July 1992, during the Meksi Government, amounts to around 1 billion lire. Hoping that this time Albanian Radio and Television will be transparent and broadcast the court hearing in full, everyone will be completely convinced by the facts we will present that Fatos Nano is innocent:

Remarks by MP Musa Ulqini during the interpellation with Prime Minister Meksi and Foreign Minister Serreqi. The Socialist Party parliamentary group, in view of the tense situation in the Kukës district, requested 10 days ago that the Prime Minister come urgently to the next parliamentary sitting to answer the question: “What is the situation in Kukës, and what measures is the government taking to address the demands of the residents of the flooded areas?” Mr. Meksi, we addressed you in Parliament on 11 May, within the time limits prescribed by the rules. Nevertheless, between Article 87 of the rules and finding a solution to a difficult situation, naturally resolving the situation is more important. For this reason, we have been following the information attentively, and we are glad that you, as the government, have finally reached conclusions acceptable to both sides with the strikers. But even after the explanations you gave, as you yourself acknowledged, we are not entirely reassured, and it is difficult for us to call what has been done so far a finished and closed matter—that is, a problem solved. We would emphasize three points that lead us to this view: First, a strike in Kukës was ended and a situation calmed; but has the source of the problem been eliminated? We think it has not. We will not dwell on the fact that the situation in Kukës was known to all of us, but, in our view, was seriously underestimated by the government. As the opposition, we have raised this in Parliament and have recognized and supported as justified the vital demands of the thirty thousand residents of the villages flooded by the Fierza reservoir. The alternatives we proposed were rejected, as usual, by majority vote. The people of Kukës were driven to a hunger strike by your irresponsible election promises. You know very well what happened, for example, in the village of Fajzë: your ministers made promises, and we know how it ended. And the promises concerning what they had spent on seeds and nettles—these are tinder for further “flare-ups.” The factors provoking the strike are still present. You spend no small number of hours discussing the issue of land. We are not opposed to that. But you often accept “living conditions” when you should be insisting on the enforcement of the law. On the one hand there is failure to enforce the law; on the other, inaction on the organized, controlled relocation of the landless population to agricultural areas with more land, in order to prevent haphazard movements that create economic, social, and even political problems. But the problem of consistently applying the land law has been left unresolved in many parts of the country. You know this, but your government is acting sluggishly. There are other factors, too. For example, we say that the rise in electricity prices also provoked the hunger strike. Whenever the residents of this area sought compensation from the revenue generated by sales from the Fierza hydroelectric plant, the government responded negatively, arguing that electricity was being sold at a loss. And indeed, that was so: the people paid 50 qindarka per kilowatt-hour, while the actual cost of one kilowatt-hour was 73 qindarka, so they paid 20 qindarka less. But when the price of electricity went from 7.3 old lekë (its actual cost) to 45 lekë, thus becoming almost cost-based, although the government raised it sixfold, it still provided no compensation for residents of the area flooded by Fierza. Then impatience reached such a level that it drove people to go on hunger strike. Yet this factor is still present. The price of electricity is high and unaffordable, especially in the countryside. This has been and remains our view. Second, you informed us that the problem has entered the path toward a solution, but it has not yet been solved. You say it cannot be solved immediately. Yet for some time the local authorities and the relevant association have made detailed studies and proposed solutions available to you as the government. Last October a government commission also went there; its estimates of the work required were low, as you yourself pointed out. Thus, studies and commissions have also been available to Parliament. So it is difficult to accept this, and it is also said: “We consider it necessary to have a large-scale solution.” (Continued on page 2)

10 people have been detained by the police The theft of cows from the zootechnical station and the breaking into of the warehouses of the former industrial-trading enterprise took place the previous night, with the perpetrators operating throughout the night and afterward. On Wednesday, at around 13:00, people entered the enterprise’s warehouse at the Kiras repair facility; materials that were ... taken by groups of people were worth 28 million lek. Some people who were near the scene reported that, besides other goods, they saw people leaving with television sets in their hands, cars ... (Continued on page 4)

“Rasim Rota, a traffic police inspector who killed the commander of the Koplik police post, is now of unknown whereabouts. But a member of his family has gone and turned himself in ... (Continued on page 3)

LAWYER SANXHAKU DECLARES: Fatos Nano is innocent In the Court of Appeal, we will prove it with complete evidence

. May 1993: The chairman of SHKSH, a member of the Democratic Party’s senior leadership, Blerim Çela, reads before the Albanian Parliament, amid a tense political situation brought about by the severe economic crisis and the opposition’s demand for 30 July 1993: The chairman of the Socialist Party, people’s deputy Fatos Nano, is arrested. Following the resignation of two prosecutors who were investigating the “Nano affair”—resignation of the Government, what would later be read on a considerable number of occasions. The report on corruption involving Italian aid, the cover for political aims, political accusations against opposition leader Fatos Nano. May 1993: For days on end, Fatos Nano is not allowed to speak before Parliament. The parliamentary chamber, turned into a boxing arena, holds its greatest surprise. A people’s deputy, an opposition leader, is not given the floor to respond to the accusations made against him.

In recent days, ahead of the start of the trial of former President R. Alia, several newspapers have written that he is guilty and will be convicted of “genocide,” of “political crime against his own people,” of “national crime, of psychological crime against Albanians,” of “massacres at the borders, etc., etc.” The above are fabrications. According to the indictment communicated by the prosecutor’s investigative bodies against R. Alia, there is no charge of a political nature against him. Former head of state R. Alia, after 19 months of investigations while under arrest and held in complete isolation, will defend himself before the court against two charges. The first is theft of state property, committed in collaboration, connected with his financial treatment as a former senior official of the Party of Labour and the state. The second is abuse of office, which resulted in the violation of human rights, on the grounds that he agreed with the decision to close religious institutions in 1967, with the approval in 1985 of the “Platform of the State Security organs” by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the PPSH, and with the property penalty imposed as a consequence of the financial treatment of Enver Hoxha’s family after his death. These crimes are provided for under Articles 62 and 13, and 106 and 13, of the Criminal Code. Fabrications alleging “genocide” or “other crimes of a political nature” are contradicted by official statements. These articles misinform public opinion and seek to tarnish the former head of state’s reputation before the court has declared him guilty, which shows that their purpose is to damage his interests in the trial that is expected to take place. Some newspapers, by abusing freedom of the press or because they lack accurate information, knowingly or unknowingly exert pressure on the judicial panel through these actions. Such actions violate constitutional provisions which, in our democratic state, guarantee that even accused persons are treated as innocent until they have been declared guilty by a final court judgment. In this way, the right of accused persons to a public, fair and speedy trial by a competent, independent and impartial court is infringed (Articles 7 and 40 of the law “On the Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms”). Defense lawyer KLEANTH KOÇI Tirana, 18.05.1994