RIOT police stormed opposition party leaders at a demonstration in central Tirana yesterday, beating them with batons and fists before bringing them to police stations.
Lines of uniformed officers and plainclothes police surrounded the headquarters of the main opposition Socialist Party near Skanderbeg Square, sealing off roads to the building where some 200 chanting supporters had sought shelter.
Police with riot shields and batons seized and beat Socialist deputy leader, Mr Servet Pellumbi the head of the Social Democrats, Mr Skender Gjinushi, and Democratic Alliance chief, Mr Neritan Ceka, on the steps of the Palace of Culture as they prepared to lead supporters in a protest against last Sunday's general election.
Most of the senior opposition figures were later released, but Mr Pellumbi was still in detention.
Opposition leaders held an impromptu news conference in the Hotel Tirana International on Skenderbeg Square.
Albanian and foreign journalists were among those beaten by police, including a foreign cameraman and a photographer from Spain's El Mundo newspaper who was at the news conference. Police smashed both their cameras and confiscated film from other photographers. .
Most of Albanian's opposition parties, representing 52 of the 56 opposition deputies in the last parliament, pulled out midway through the election after accusing the ruling Democratic Party President Sali Berisha of rigging the vote.
The opposition was prevented from holding the demonstration in the square where Mr Berisha and more than 50,000 supporters held a rally on Monday night to celebrate what they claimed was a landslide victory.
British and Norwegian members of a European observer mission monitoring the election said on Tuesday the vote did not meet international standards for free and fair elections.
The 11 British and Norwegian members of a 50 strong Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) mission issued a statement with their criticisms. The other observers refrained from comment.
The British and Norwegian statement said "It is our conclusion that the will of the Albanian people was not expressed in a free manner in the elections of May 26th 1996."
It said it could not speak on behalf of the OSCE as a whole, which will issue its official election report today in Vienna.