Money paid to kill Democrat lawmaker

TIRANA, Aug 24 – Azem Hajdari, former Democratic Party lawmaker, was killed in 1998 by people who were paid $150,000, says Sokol Bare, former vice interior minister.
In an interview with the Panorama newspaper, Bare said that Hajdari’s file made it clear who the killer was and what the reasons for the crime were. He said that a foreign intelligence service had revealed who was responsible for the murder. Following Hajdari’s murder, the country returned to a more subdued repetition of the earlier anarchic days, including a coup attempt by the Democratic Party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha, two days after Hajdari was killed on September 12, 1998 close to the party’s headquarters in downtown Tirana. Bare said that when politics would keep its hands off the judiciary, then the truth would be revealed. “This file will no doubt be open. Anyone thinking everything is over is wrong,” he said. A year after the anarchic year of 1997, Democrats supporters attacked the main government building, claiming they had taken power. A few days later, they abandoned the main public television station and walked away from a few tanks used in their protest and the country returned to normalcy. Though some people have been sentenced for Hajdari’s murder, Bare said they are the ones who committed the murder, though those who financed and planned the crime remain free.(Tirana Times Staff)