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Albania's Alia Jailed

TIRANA, Albania -- Albania's last Communist ruler, Ramiz Alia, has been sentenced to nine years in prison for violating the rights of Albanian citizens while he was in power. The court also ordered Alia, 68, to repay state funds spent on personal services while he was president, amounting to 1.1 million leks ($117,000). Nine other former officials from the old regime who were on trial with Alia got lesser sentences. Hand-picked by Enver Hoxha, the longtime Stalinist ruler who died in 1985, Alia ran the impoverished Balkan state until the advent of multiparty democracy in early 1991. He briefly remained president after the country's first free elections.

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