Secret police

The Italian police announced on Wednesday, that in collaboration with Europol, it had arrested a 19-year-old Italian Kosovar woman, Bleona Tafallari, as part of a counter-terrorism operation which took place in Milan.

This March marked the 30th anniversary of the first multiparty elections in Albania that followed the fall of the communist regime, which, according to Neil Kritz, researcher at the American Institute for Peace, was one of the most tightly closed regimes in the world.

Some appear to be members of the National Guard, state police and army, who by law would be prohibited from engaging in party politics.

Agron Tufa, head of the Institute for the Study of the Crimes of Communism, presents his annual report to parliament in May. Photo: Malton Dibra/LSA.

Greek police's racial violence unit arrested on Thursday a 48-year-old man believed to be the leader of a shadowy, extreme right-wing group called Krypteia, which has in the past few years claimed responsibility for a number attacks against migrants.

The landmark ruling by the Administrative Court of Appeals in Tirana on Wednesday paved the way for the declassification and publication of written reports and statistical data produced by Albania's Sigurimi security service.

Ismail Kadare said in an open letter distributed to media on Wednesday that he asked two weeks ago for the files held on him by the Sigurimi - Albania's Communist-era secret police - to be opened up so he can discover who spied on him.

"I inform you that I requested the opening of my file two weeks ago, without putting any condition or restriction [on it]," he said in the letter.

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has appointed a Cold War-era intelligence officer as his security and defense adviser.

Ilian Alipiev has held different operative positions at the ministries of interior and defense, the President's press office recalls.

An Administrative Court in Tirana has ordered Albania's main intelligence agency, SHISH, to de-classify reports of the former Communist-era Sigurimi secret police and its data on the number of people kept under surveillance during the last decade of the Communist regime.  

The first of five candidates for the office in charge of opening up secret police files that were compiled during the reign of Albanian Communist dictator Enver Hoxha is expected to be approved by parliament on Thursday.