The anti-crime operation on the Mamurras–Laç stretch began 24 hours ago
• They wanted to kill the Laç Police Commissioner • They control the trafficking of prostitutes and stolen cars
TIRANA—Interior Minister Poçi has dismissed Gëzim Gjoka, head of the Laç Police Criminal Investigation Department. The decision to remove him from his post came as a result of several conclusions relating to his commitment to duty.
TIRANA—To ensure law and order in the city of Laç, Minister Spartak Poçi has ordered the Director of Public Order, Albert Dervishi, to remain in the city for an indefinite period to command all police forces.
TIRANA—“The ‘tough guys’ of Laç who dared to take control and challenge the police have almost all been identified, and very soon they will be in handcuffs.” Investigators will have no difficulty arresting the criminals, since they are all wanted.
SPECIAL REPORT ON PAGE 3
A symphony that is not yet over
He will also meet the President and the Prime Minister
NANO WITH ALBANIANS IN MACEDONIA
He will also meet the President and the Prime Minister
Meetings begin with the chairman of the Democrats, Xhaferi
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What are we going to do about bandit politicians?
ISSUE OF THE DAY
The opposition Democratic Party yesterday identified itself with a criminal gang that controls the international trafficking of prostitutes and stolen cars and has its “nest” on the Mamurras–Laç stretch.
Shaban Memia, known as a Democratic Party MP and member of its leadership, and Leni Luca, a local power-holder in the Laç district, said yesterday in official statements that the bandits who tried to kidnap and kill the city’s newly appointed commissioner 48 hours earlier were PD supporters, and that their area of operation was made up of “people who support the PD.” They called on the police to stop the anti-crime operation, otherwise they would confront them.
The police confirmed that they would not withdraw from the city of Laç until they had arrested all the people who had sought to kill the Laç commissioner. In recent days, the police have demonstrated through numerous cases that on Saturday they had signed—
Shaban Memia, candidate for Mayor of Tirana
NEWS OF THE DAY
Zela: Tirana knows very well what you did in ’97; withdraw your candidacy, or we’ll…
PD’s game with Kosovo brings division
Before Kosovo has even become a state, there are calls to divide it into parcels according to the deals of Albanian politics
PAGE 14
Ollbrajt: The Pact dragged down by bureaucracy
A year ago, we did not think about the bureaucrats and the delays they are causing for the Pact
PAGE 5
Culture / Inva Mula sings in Prishtina
PAGE 14
Berisha like the former head of Burkina Faso: Let’s take away the ministers’ work shoes
Pictured: Former President of Albania Sali Berisha and his former architect Vebi Alimuça, for whom the prosecution requested a 25-year prison sentence.
Feudobolshevik alternative: “This alternative, whose origins lie in the regime of Tomas Sankara in Burkina Faso, was tried there without success, when the captain in question took away the shoes of his government’s ministers.”
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Zela: Tirana 2000, 2.8 billion in domestic funds plus 3.3 billion in foreign funds
Tirana, 19.5% of the country’s total investments
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Malaj: Our ambition is to increase the population’s real income
Economic reform, concrete opportunities
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2000–2003: Government commits USD 600 million to fighting poverty in the country
A new phase for the Albanian economy
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The mayor of Tirana
Zela: Tirana knows full well what you did in ’97; withdraw your candidacy or you’ll scare the children
Zela: Tirana knows full you’ll scare the children
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The town of Laç, until it had put behind bars police chief. In recent days, the police have demonstrated many times their resolve, through cases that lead you to believe in it.
So the problem no longer lies here.
The problem lies in the support provided by exploiting the legal immunity that MPs and local power-holders grant to ordinary criminals, presenting them as their political supporters.
Two years ago, it was the Deputy Speaker of Parliament and DP MP Jozefina Topalli who supported and took part in the criminal act of holding Potgorica, the former prefect of Shkodër, hostage, and then in the attack on the police station and the burning of several institutions, including the library in the city of Shkodër.
The events appear to follow one another along a now-clear terrorist path, while punishment has been stifled and reduced to inaction because of a complex about politics.
It is not known how much longer things will continue this way, while the constitutional order is threatened by clear criminal and terrorist networks organized within the opposition Democratic Party. The two men often identified in these networks now have names and records: they are called Shaban Memia and Ali Kazazi.
FRESSH
On Sunday at 10:00, the General Governing Committee of FRESSH will meet at the PS headquarters in Tirana.
INSIDE
• Muçi on the financial market: Here are the five factories we will privatize now ................. 11
• Only 35% of the funds committed by the EU have been put into roads by Shuli .... 11
