Statement by Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano PAGE 3

Socialists celebrate the party’s 7th anniversary Dritëro Agolli: “The SP is the most renewed, the most modern of all the other political forces” PAGE 2

DOMESTIC AFFAIRS THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC RECEIVES THE UN MISSION PAGE 3

LONDON: MEETING OF CONTACT GROUP FOREIGN MINISTERS CONCLUDES PAGE 3

PAGE 9 ON MONDAY AT THE TIRANA COURT, THE PROSECUTION WILL SEEK DETENTION IN PRISON

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The 50 thousand dollars received from “Gjallica” — the tip of the iceberg of the money received from pyramid companies

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Panic and fear in the ranks of the Democratic Party. Transparency about the pyramid companies is heightening the climate of uncertainty in the camp of the country’s most criminalized party, that of former president Berisha. Most of its leaders turn out to be implicated in crime. The party itself was—and continues to be—sustained by money from the pyramid companies, money the fraudulent companies took from the people. Hoping they could conceal the iceberg, DP leaders hurried to “admit” that they had received 50 thousand dollars from the “Gjallica” company. But, according to trusted sources among DP members denounced by Berisha, the sums stolen from the pyramid company were several times larger. We are talking about millions of dollars, not counting the other millions stolen through smuggling by the “Shqiponja” company, or the money forcibly taken from Albanian traders by threatening them with representatives of the law-enforcement agencies, the prosecution and the courts. Delays in ensuring transparency, and the governing coalition’s accountability in building the state and its institutions, are creating tension and discontent within the DP. Initially terrified by the monstrous crimes of a year ago, many of them left the country to seek refuge elsewhere, while others—including the head of the crime, former president Berisha—were preparing to flee. But when it seemed that everything was heading towards an irreversible departure, the victories of progressive forces over those of regression and darkness, and the philosophy of coexistence and integration, were also used as a shield by political bandits and criminals, in the hope that they could cover their tracks. But the traces of their crimes are etched in the memory of an entire people, in the blood shed and the lives lost. Transparency about the pyramid companies sheds light on only one side of the criminal activity of Sali Berisha and his followers. It is multidimensional, a whole labyrinth of endless crimes, beginning and culminating in the looting of the pyramid schemes on which that power had been built, and becoming clearer after the events of last year are brought to light.

Pandeli Majko and Namik Dokle respond PAGE 4