Opposition Party Leader Fatally Shot

A senior leader of Albania’s opposition Democratic Party was shot dead as he stepped out of the party’s office in Tirana, the capital. Azem Hajdari, accompanied by two bodyguards, “received numerous bullets in the chest and could not escape death,” a statement by the Democratic Party said. One of Hajdari’s bodyguards was killed instantly and a second bodyguard was in serious condition in the hospital, it said. Hajdari was the first senior politician to be assassinated since formerly Stalinist Albania embraced democracy eight years ago. The Democrats said they had identified the killer as a chief policeman in Tropoje.