International reaction over the independence of the judiciary in Albania - Clear concern in the American administration - The Council of Europe will send two observers to Albania - The International Helsinki Federation strongly addresses the Albanian Minister of Justice Read on page 3 This photo published in the Albanian press was taken on the first day of the police siege of the Court of Cassation, a siege seen by everyone except those who ordered and carried it out. Today the siege has become more sophisticated and the police no longer stand there as on the first day. They have been replaced by others, with the civil police. We wanted to test this courage by going to the Court of Cassation.

Editorial - When people leave their homeland at any cost and by any means, it means they are disappointed by the government. Once again, tragedy came from the sea. The exact number of missing in the tragic, extremely tragic accident that occurred in a speedboat carrying Albanians somewhere in the Adriatic is still unknown. We are talking about 10 or 15 young people swallowed by the waves of the sea. This is not the first time it has happened. Exoduses, mass departures from the country, especially among young people, have been companions of these years of transition. They say a lot. They show that our people want to live differently. They show how little future they have in their own country. Although all of Vlora, and not only it, is in mourning and the news reaches even those officials who have ears and eyes, the official press, in the midst of President Berisha’s visit to America, finds no room even to report this mournful news. Why this attitude, outside all humane norms and our good traditions? Someone may think that reporting this dark news would spoil the “festive” atmosphere of the head of state’s visit. Someone else argues further that these mass departures from Albania, which have not stopped for a single day throughout the PD government, are a huge slap in the face to the way the country is governed. And they are completely right. No country in the world today has offered a “station of refugee population,” illegal, i.e. clandestine, without asking questions of rights, as Albania has. Is this among the “major successes” of the reform? September is like the month of weddings. They bring children before their eyes. We all rejoice when a child comes into the world, but grief is a hundred times greater when that child is being gnawed at by a better life across the sea. The bodies of the unidentified victims of the day-before-yesterday tragedy in the Adriatic are kept in the morgue in Lecce. How many Albanian families think that among them is also the body of their child? Although it is a small country, no one should be surplus in Albania. Evil political calculations are responsible for presenting mass exoduses as an expression of the democratic spaces the country has achieved and of personal freedoms, at a time when the aim is to get rid of hopeless and futureless people. There are many of them. That is why this tragedy accuses.

Yesterday the deputy chairman of the Socialist Party, Dr. Servet Pëllumbi, received at the party headquarters the ambassador of the People’s Republic of China, Mr. Tao Miao Fa, at the latter’s request. During the meeting, views were exchanged regarding the political developments in the country and the situation in the region. In addition, possibilities for the further development of friendly relations between the two countries were discussed. The meeting took place in a friendly atmosphere. Press and Information Office of the Socialist Party

In front of the opposition stands the state itself with its many ranks. Yet it does not appear calm at all; it seems deeply shaken, very nervous, uncontrollable, at every moment inclined to degenerate political struggle into mistakes. The police at the gates of the Court of Cassation show best of all that, from being the authors of the war of nerves, they are turning themselves into its victims as well. Read on page 2

At the Court of Appeal: Acquittal for the deputy editor-in-chief of “Zëri i Popullit” Luan M. Rama Elements of the criminal offense are missing Yesterday at midday, the criminal case against the deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Zëri i Popullit,” Luan M. Rama, concluded at the Court of Appeal, following his appeal against the decision of the Tirana court of first instance, which had declared him guilty under Article 25 of the Press Law and sentenced him to a fine of 100,000 new lek. After hearing the rapporteur in the case and reviewing the prosecutor’s report submitted in writing to the court file, the panel gave the floor to Luan M. Rama’s lawyer, Mr. Muharrem Kushe, who legally argued the groundlessness and unfoundedness of the accusation brought against him, requesting in conclusion an acquittal for the deputy editor-in-chief of “Zëri i Popullit.” The panel also heard the defendant himself, who maintained the same position he had taken in the Tirana court. Based on the materials in the court file and on the position of Luan M. Rama and his lawyer before the panel, the latter concluded that the elements of the criminal offense are lacking and accordingly declared the deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Zëri i Popullit” not guilty.

Read on page 6