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Sali Berisha
Sali Berisha ([saˈli bɛˈɾiʃa] ⓘ; born 15 October 1944) is an Albanian conservative politician, a retired cardiologist who served as the President of Albania from 1992 to 1997 and as the 32nd prime minister of Albania from 2005 to 2013. Berisha has served as chairman of the Democratic Party of Albania since 2022. He has previously held the position of chairman from 1990 to 1992 and 1997 to 2013. He is the leader of the opposition in Albania.
Under the Biden Administration, he was barred from entering the United States under Section 7031(c)(1)(A) of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 due to accusations of 'involvement in significant corruption' and ties to organized crime groups and criminals deemed a 'risk to public safety in Albania. Berisha is also sanctioned by the United Kingdom. Despite major speculation to the contrary, Berisha is still barred from entering the United States as of May 2025[update].
On 9 September 2021, Berisha was expelled by party chairman Lulzim Basha from the Democratic Party's Parliamentary Group due to legal issues with the US Department of State. This decision led to 79-year-old Berisha starting a nation-wide movement to remove Basha as leader of the Democratic Party, causing a major rift in the party's internal structures, between Berisha's and Basha's supporters.
On 30 December 2023, Berisha was placed under house arrest due to alleged corruption during his term as Prime Minister. He was released following a court order on 27 November 2024.
Berisha was born in Viçidol, then Tropojë District, in northern Albania, to a Muslim family of mountain farmers. His family belong to the Berisha tribe. As a child, he tended sheep.
After his father became a functionary of the Party of Labour of Albania, Berisha enjoyed a higher education and was then able to study medicine at the University of Tirana, graduating in 1967. With a one-year scholarship, he specialized in cardiology in Paris.
Subsequently, he was appointed as an assistant professor of medicine at the same university and as staff cardiologist at the Tirana General Hospital. At the same time, Berisha became a member of a discussion forum for changes in the Albanian Party of Labor while having been enrolled as a member a few years earlier. During the 1970s, Berisha gained distinction as the leading researcher in the field of cardiology in Albania and became professor of cardiology at the University of Tirana.[citation needed] In 1978 he received a United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural (UNESCO) fellowship for nine months of advanced study and training in Paris. He also conducted a research program on hemodynamics that attracted considerable attention among his colleagues in Europe. In 1986 he was elected to be a member of the European Committee for Research on Medical Sciences.[citation needed]
In an interview for the Albanian Writers League newspaper published also in the international press, Berisha demanded that the remaining barriers to freedom of thought and expression be ended, that Albanians be granted the right to travel freely within the country and abroad, and that Albania abandon its isolationist foreign policy[clarification needed]. At an August 1990 meeting of the nation's intellectuals convened by President Ramiz Alia, Berisha urged the Albanian Party of Labor to abolish the third article of the communist constitution which sanctioned that the Party of Labor had the hegemony of the Power, to recognize the Human Rights Charter, the drafting of a new democratic constitution, and to remove all monuments of Stalin in the country.[citation needed]
Sali Berisha
Sali Berisha ([saˈli bɛˈɾiʃa] ⓘ; born 15 October 1944) is an Albanian conservative politician, a retired cardiologist who served as the President of Albania from 1992 to 1997 and as the 32nd prime minister of Albania from 2005 to 2013. Berisha has served as chairman of the Democratic Party of Albania since 2022. He has previously held the position of chairman from 1990 to 1992 and 1997 to 2013. He is the leader of the opposition in Albania.
Under the Biden Administration, he was barred from entering the United States under Section 7031(c)(1)(A) of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 due to accusations of 'involvement in significant corruption' and ties to organized crime groups and criminals deemed a 'risk to public safety in Albania. Berisha is also sanctioned by the United Kingdom. Despite major speculation to the contrary, Berisha is still barred from entering the United States as of May 2025[update].
On 9 September 2021, Berisha was expelled by party chairman Lulzim Basha from the Democratic Party's Parliamentary Group due to legal issues with the US Department of State. This decision led to 79-year-old Berisha starting a nation-wide movement to remove Basha as leader of the Democratic Party, causing a major rift in the party's internal structures, between Berisha's and Basha's supporters.
On 30 December 2023, Berisha was placed under house arrest due to alleged corruption during his term as Prime Minister. He was released following a court order on 27 November 2024.
Berisha was born in Viçidol, then Tropojë District, in northern Albania, to a Muslim family of mountain farmers. His family belong to the Berisha tribe. As a child, he tended sheep.
After his father became a functionary of the Party of Labour of Albania, Berisha enjoyed a higher education and was then able to study medicine at the University of Tirana, graduating in 1967. With a one-year scholarship, he specialized in cardiology in Paris.
Subsequently, he was appointed as an assistant professor of medicine at the same university and as staff cardiologist at the Tirana General Hospital. At the same time, Berisha became a member of a discussion forum for changes in the Albanian Party of Labor while having been enrolled as a member a few years earlier. During the 1970s, Berisha gained distinction as the leading researcher in the field of cardiology in Albania and became professor of cardiology at the University of Tirana.[citation needed] In 1978 he received a United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural (UNESCO) fellowship for nine months of advanced study and training in Paris. He also conducted a research program on hemodynamics that attracted considerable attention among his colleagues in Europe. In 1986 he was elected to be a member of the European Committee for Research on Medical Sciences.[citation needed]
In an interview for the Albanian Writers League newspaper published also in the international press, Berisha demanded that the remaining barriers to freedom of thought and expression be ended, that Albanians be granted the right to travel freely within the country and abroad, and that Albania abandon its isolationist foreign policy[clarification needed]. At an August 1990 meeting of the nation's intellectuals convened by President Ramiz Alia, Berisha urged the Albanian Party of Labor to abolish the third article of the communist constitution which sanctioned that the Party of Labor had the hegemony of the Power, to recognize the Human Rights Charter, the drafting of a new democratic constitution, and to remove all monuments of Stalin in the country.[citation needed]
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