biography
pronunciation:
[alia]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1925– )
|
| biography:
| Albanian statesman and president (1985–92), born in Shkodër, NW Albania. A former president of the youth wing of the ruling Communist Party of Labour of Albania (APL), he was inducted into the Party's central committee in 1954 and made minister of education (1955) and head of agitprop (1958). He entered the APL's secretariat (1960) and Politburo (1961), and on the death of Hoxha (1985) took over as APL leader. Although returned to power in the country's first multi-party elections in 1991, he was defeated the following year, and in 1994 received a 9-year prison sentence for abuse of power. |
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