Mr. Ukshin HOTI, Professor of Political Sciences in the University of Pristina (Kosovo), has been imprisoned since 1994. The trial, convened in at least questionable conditions, condemned him to 5 years imprisonment for "having threatened the constitutional order" and for "attacking the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia".

He has already spent 8 years of his life in prison for offences related to his opinion and efforts in favour of a nonviolent and negotiated solution to the question of Kosovo.

Arrested for the first time in 1981 for "counter-revolutionary crimes", he was judged and sentenced to 9 years in prison (this penalty was later reduced to 3 years and half by the Supreme Court).

At the end of the 1980's, he denounced the political opportunism, which, according to him, caused the escalation of the events in the Former Yugoslavia and the vesting of Milosevic into power in Serbia.

In 1988 and 1989, a campaign against him was launched in the Belgrade press by the Serbian secret services. Among other accusations, he was treated as an agent of Albania. He responded to this camaign by a theoretical essay, in which he requested the opening of western styled democratic institutions.

In 1990, he cooperated with Albanian journals "Alternativa", "Republika" and "Demokracia Autentike - DeA" in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where he endeavoured to define the political objectives of Albanians in Kosovo, drawing the attention to the fact that democracy must rise from the country and cannot be implanted there by the others.

In February 1992, in Brestovc, Ukshin HOTI, leading the crowd of inhabitants, paid tribute to the people killed during manifestations in favour of democracy. For this action Ukshin HOTI was sentenced to a second imprionment during March and April 1993.

In 1994, Ukshin HOTI is again arrested. On 17 May, he was sentenced to 5 years inprisonment for having "threatened the constitutional order of the FRY". He is still serving his sentence today in the Serbian prison of Dubrave.

SUPPORTING THE CANDIDACY OF UKSHIN HOTI FOR THE SAKHAROV PRIZE 1999 MEANS STRENGTHENING ALL THOSE, WHO, AS HIM, STRUGGLE FOR A POLITICAL SOLUTION OF THE QUESTION OF KOSOVO

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