3 guardsmen released from arrest

TIRANA, March 2 – Three Republican Guard officers arrested and accused of the four dead at the Jan. 21 protest were released Wednesday from the Tirana Appeals Court after the prosecutors had not based their request with proves.
A fourth, accused of the death of at least one of the victims, is still under arrest.
During a violent opposition demonstration on January 21 four protesters died and more than 150 people and policemen were wounded.
The Socialists demanded early general elections and a provisional government of technicians to ensure that the polls are free and fair.
Berisha’s center-right government and the Socialist opposition have engaged in a tense political standoff over the past 18 months concerning the results of the June 2009 general elections, which the Socialists lost but which they say were marred by fraud.
Berisha considered the opposition’s protest an attempted coup.
Prosecutors are investigating the murders, the organizers of the protest and the violent demonstrators that attacked the police.