ALBANIA: Condemned

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For signing in Vienna last May a manifesto protesting against the regime of Ahmed Bey Zogu, President of Albania, Bishop Fan Stylian Noli and eight of his confederates were sentenced to death in absence, which means that if they ever set foot in Albania while President Zogu is in control they will in all likelihood be summarily executed.

The manifesto in question accused Ahmed Zogu of crass tyranny and attempted to show that he was the creature of Britain and Italy, with the latter of whom he signed the much-criticized Treaty of Tirano (TIME, Dec. 17, 1926). The document also advocated a Soviet regime as being the only means of freeing the "enslaved" people.

Bishop Noli is a graduate of Harvard and the founder in Boston of the Orthodox Albanian Church. Twice Albanian delegate to the League of Nations, he became President and Premier of Albania in 1924. In December of the same year (TIME, Jan. 5, 1925), he was ousted by Ahmed Zogu, and for the most part has since resided in Vienna, headquarters of European political exiles.