Albania Ex-Political Prisoner in Self-Immolation Protest

Kaziu tried to set himself on fire after making a statement to reporters accusing the centre-left government of Prime Minister Edi Rama of failing to uphold its promises to repay former political prisoners for their suffering.

TV pictures show Kaziu trying to pour a bottle of petrol over himself, before being tackled to the ground by police officers.

In his statement, he complained of being unemployed and in poor health and said he could not afford to pay for his medicine.

Albania’s Association of Former Political Prisoners believes that about 5,577 men and 450 women were executed for political crimes during the Communist era from 1946 to 1991. Tens of thousands of others were imprisoned or sent to labour camps.

A law passed in 2007 said former political prisoners of the regime were entitled to 2,000 lek (€14.3) for every day of prison that they had served.

However, the government then divided the payment into eight tranches and in the past five years only two of those segments have actually been disbursed.

In October 2012, a group of ex-prisoners held a hunger strike in Tirana, calling for immediate reparations of their time in prison.

Two of the prisoners set themselves on fire in protest and one of them later died in an Italian hospital.