By Afrim Imaj
Memorie.al / At the end of August and the beginning of September of 1983, an audio was released a few days before the trial of Fiqirete Shehu, prepared with her testimony during the investigative process by the people of the State Security, was distributed in all the cities of Albania from the South to the North which was heard, centered on the most important institutions, enterprises and work centers throughout the country. The widow of the former prime minister who committed suicide under suspicious circumstances, affirmed with her own mouth, the whole mystery of the sensational event as well as her “hostile activity” and that of the Shehu family as well. All those who had the opportunity to know him closely, were surprised by the testimony of Fiqirete Shehu, Mehmet Shehu’s wife, (former member of the Central Committee of the Party since April 1952, former director of the High School of the Party ” Vladmir Ilic Lenin” in Tirana), while the majority of the people, workers and peasants wherever they were, believed blindly, everything was said in that ghostly video, where she confessed with conviction, plots after plots, devised by her husband and others, with the sole purpose of carrying out the assassination of the main leader of the Party, Enver Hoxha!
After her testimony, the senior leadership of PPSh headed by Enver Hoxha, Ramiz Ali and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Hekuran Isain, who were the main creators of that process and the video that was served to the Albanians with the testimony of Fiqrtet Shehu, thought that all doubts about the suicide of former Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu would be closed. But soon, people would start talking under their breath and questioning her statements, thinking that she was repeating what the investigators and the Security people dictated to her. Meanwhile, the first hypotheses arose, according to which Fiqiretja was forced to do everything in order to save the rest of the family, the children.
The trial that started on August 15, 1983 and would end in a week!
Officially considered open, the trial of Fiqirete Shehu, the wife of the former Albanian communist prime minister, would be held entirely under strict security measures, in the presence of a selected audience, where, in addition to the heads of the State Security and some high-ranking officials Ministry of Internal Affairs, for whom the relevant invitations were prepared, no one else would be allowed to cross the threshold of the Supreme Court hall, and then to the premises of the 313th Prison, where, the defendant Fiqret Shehu with two her sons and several others accused of being the “main collaborators” of the former prime minister, would face the heads of communist justice. The “crucifixion” of Fiqrete Shehu and some former high party and state officials of the communist regime, in August 1983, was one of the most sensational processes of the communist period in Albania.
In the voluminous record of the investigative and judicial process in charge of Fiqirete Shehu, Llambi Ziçishti, Nesti Nases, Skënder e Bashkim Shehu, Gani Kodra, Ali Çeno, etc., they are accused “of espionage, high treason against the Motherland and attempts for the overthrow of the dictatorship of the proletariat in Albania”.
Built entirely in secret procedures with 20 months of isolation, thousands of hours of investigation, 20 court sessions, dozens of staged monstrous confrontations, the process has been triumphantly closed with the most severe punishments. Assessed as “repentant”, the prime minister’s widow who “collaborated” with “justice” to justify the next alibi of the State Security, would be sentenced to 25 years in prison.
That would be the verdict of the court for Nesti Nasen, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs. Meanwhile, their friend, Llambi Zicishti, former head of Health, would be sentenced to death.
In the minutes of the investigative and judicial process, the metamorphosis of Fiqret Shehu is clearly visible, who in the name of “cooperation with justice” became the main protagonist of the accusation, penalizing, first, her husband Mehmet Shehu, as one of the The most dangerous “polyagents”, “recruited”, according to her, as early as the 30s when he was a student at Harry Fultz’s Agricultural Technical School.
The pretense held in the trial of Fiqirete Shehu, Llambi Ziçishti, Nesti Nases and Skënder Shehu in August of ’83 by the General Prosecutor Rrapi Mino, was prepared by Hekuran Isai! Fully 75 pages of the indictment stored in Fiqirete Shehu’s file bear the signature of the Minister of the Interior. More than that, all the material used in it refers to the investigative process that was once again led by Hekuran Isai, the man who was put in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as Enver Hoxha’s confidant, after Mehmet Shehu’s suicide. .
The former head of the State Security, who apparently possessed extraordinary power, after investigating in his own way with a group of trusted experts, brought to court not only the “evidence” of the traitorous and agentic activity of Mehmet’s associates Shehut, but also the final verdict for their punishment. In this particular case, the jury, and rather the head of the prosecution Rrapi Mino, did the easiest thing, lecturing in the courtroom, what the head of the Ministry of the Interior served him, even preserving his dialect.
Indictment Against the defendants: Fiqirete Shehu, Llambi Ziçishti, Nesti Nase and Skënder Shehu
“They are accused of having been put in the service of foreign espionage agencies and of acting in a hostile group, headed by the polyagent, coup plotter and terrorist Mehmet Shehu, to conspire against the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, to overthrow the people’s power and to placed in its place, a capitalist-revisionist regime, oppressive and exploitative of the people.
In order to achieve their goals, these conspiratorial enemies have acted as active members of a counter-revolutionary organization, created by Mehmet Shehu, have carried out preparatory actions for the physical elimination of the First Secretary of the Central Committee, have sabotaged the political line of the party and the economy socialists, have developed agitation and propaganda for weakening and undermining the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat in Albania…!
Their activity in the service of foreign agencies is early and organized. One of the most active espionage agencies, which has acted against our people since early on, is the American agency. Its various missionaries, disguised as diplomats, traders, teachers, folklore collectors and others, began to weave their espionage network as early as the 1930s.
Precisely in the 30s, the well-known cadre of the American Discovery, the former director of the Technical School in Tirana, Harry Fulc, recruited, among others, Mehmet Shehu, whom they prepared with the intention of serving the interests of American imperialism in Albania. To make him capable, for this purpose and to increase his political credit and to create opportunities for him to penetrate the revolutionary movement, Mehmet Shehu was sent for military studies in Italy and then in the Spanish war, as “anti-fascist fighter”.
Then, in 1942, he was sent to Albania, where the National Liberation War had taken off. It was during this period that the imperialist enemies and the reactionary bourgeoisie hatched dark plans against Albania, aimed at sabotaging the war for liberation and especially not allowing the people to come to power. At the head of these reactionary efforts, were the Anglo-Americans, but together with them, there were also the Yugoslav spies who were camouflaged as “comrades” and “friends”.
Yugoslav spies, under the pretext of allegedly strengthening cooperation in the fight against fascism, worked systematically to undermine and sabotage the National Liberation War in Albania. For this, in addition to other means, they widely used agency work.
The titist emissary, Dushan Mugosha with the nickname “Çalamani”, started the study of the most suitable elements to put at the service of the Yugoslav Discovery. During his stay in Albania, “Çalamani” also recruited Mehmet Shehu and others sold, including the defendant Fiqirete Sanxhaktari (Shehu), to whom he gave the nickname “Fisari”. With his recommendation, the defendant got married to Mehmet Shehu.
Through these agents and others like them, the Yugoslav revisionists have tried to divert our National Liberation War and create the conditions for Albania to always be a country dependent on Yugoslavia, its vassal. For this purpose, they organized and instigated the well-known backstage of Berat, in November 1944, where they attacked the Albanian Communist Party, its Marxist-Leninist line and especially its General Secretary, Comrade Enver Hoxha.
The Yugoslavs wanted to subjugate the Albanian Communist Party and tie the new Albania behind them, which would emerge victorious. But, they failed in their diabolical plans, due to the vigilance of the Party and the determined and courageous fight of its leader, Comrade Enver Hoxha.
In the rank of Titist agents, who acted in conspiracy and behind the back of the Party, the spies put in the service of the Yugoslav Intelligence, Mehmet Shehu, Fiqirete Shehu, Kadri Hazbiu, Liri Gega, and others, have played the role of the most hated.
They have used terror and held sectarian positions, in order to discredit the partisan forces and the PKSH, to separate it from the people, thus to undermine the National Liberation War and to give weapons to Tito’s emissaries, to accuse and attack the party and its general secretary.
Acting as an agent of many discoveries, Mehmet Shehu put the General Staff in danger during the German Winter Operation of the year ’43-’44, he, according to the task set by the Anglo-Americans, tried to prevent the implementation of the order of the Staff of General, for the passage of the First Division to the North and after being forced to act, made numerous attempts to prevent the complete annihilation of the German army in Tirana, as well as the traitorous gangs of Abaz Kup and his friends.
Mehmet Shehu, as a mercenary of the Anglo-Americans, acted with the aim of establishing a bourgeois regime in Albania after the war, where the beylers and feudal lords were once again at the head of the country, but disguised as liberals and democrats. The handwritten program by Mehmet Shehu, in the fall of 1942 and found in his safe, after his suicide, testifies to this.
This program, which was served by its Anglo-American masters, has been embraced since the war and by the enemies, Kadri Hazbiu and Fiqirete Shehu, and others. Altogether, in an organized manner and in complete conspiracy, directed by the Anglo-American and Yugoslav discoveries, worked to bring it to life in Albania…!
The Yugoslav scouts who worked in Albania, immediately after the liberation, worked secretly to devour our homeland. Following the path of their predecessors, Tito’s emissaries in these years continued the anti-Marxist and anti-Albanian efforts, using and including in the attack their old friends and agents: Koçi Xoxe, Pandi Kristo, Nako Spiro, Sejfulla Malishova and others.
All their activity in this period was aimed at the liquidation of the Party and its sound leadership, their taking power and the annexation of Albania by Titista Yugoslavia, as its seventh republic. They failed in all their diabolical endeavors. After the unmasking of the Yugoslav revisionists, in 1948, foreign intelligence intensified their fight against our country, using various forms and mainly the organization of banditry, etc. In the fight against this banditry of foreign agencies, more than 700 martyrs fell.
Fiqrete Shehu’s trial testimony: “Mehmet had a plan to kill Enver, in April ’82”!
“While in 1981, in September, when our son Skenderi was going to continue his post-graduate studies in Sweden, Mehmet Shehu gave him as a companion, one of his most trusted friends, supposedly to relieve his boredom. The purpose was different, it was an agential purpose. He gave this companion a letter to the American agency and, if possible, to meet the person himself.
In the letter sent by Mehmet Shehu, it was written that the engagement was announced, but this action was condemned by the Party and also announced that the physical liquidation of the First Secretary of the Central Committee would take place and was supposed to take place in April of the year 1982. Sooner was out of the question. He had briefly told the contents of this letter to Skender’s companion.
The companion who went with Skenderi to Sweden, brought Mehmet Shehu the answer from the American agency. What the American agency wrote, Mehmet Shehu did not tell me, but I heard during the court hearings, what Skenderi said, that they ordered him to speed up, and not to do uncontrolled actions, because very serious things were at risk. For this companion, I can say that Mehmet Shehu also anticipated the tasks related to the military coup, which he had planned for a long time…”!
“Peaceful way, the other variant of taking power”!
“The Americans had ordered Mehmet to follow the option of taking over the leadership of the Party, in a peaceful way, that is, gradually, after 1979, to strengthen the positions in the Central Committee of the Party, also making the posting of the first Secretary of the Committee Central, from the direction of Party affairs.
The events in Kosovo shocked Yugoslavia and the Yugoslavs, although they knew the peaceful version of the Americans, demanded that we give up the US version and act actively, to take Mehmet Shehu as the leader of the Party. By ordering the physical liquidation of Enver. In the meeting I had in Sweden, the Americans agreed with the Yugoslav version. But why did the Americans accept this?
First, they were afraid that the Yugoslavs would come up with something compromising and Mehmet Shehu would be burned. Second, they did not want to create friction with Yugoslavia, as a country they use as they please. Third, the Americans formally agreed that, secretly, they began to sabotage the Yugoslav plan.
Precisely for this reason, they ordered Mehmet Shehu to make the son’s engagement to Turdi’s daughter. This action was intended to shake the positions of Mehmet, at the head of the Party, in order to implement the Yugoslav plan. On the other hand, Mehmet temporarily leaving the scene, as one of the main leaders, would be kept by the Americans to act later…”!
(It was exactly that, the affinity, that crucified Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu. Such was the engagement of Skenderi, the second son of the head of the communist government, with one of the most popular volleyball players of Tirana, in the early 80s. Fiqret Shehu, the widow of the prime minister who committed suicide, was the first to bring to the surface the mysteries of this relationship, in the court process of August 1983. For her, the love between the two young men was an alibi, through which , foreign agencies aimed at alienating the political system in Albania.
In the same line, Skënder Shehu, the protagonist of the sensational event with a pink profile, continued his confession. According to him, the engagement with a girl with a bad biography was requested by his father, Mehmeti, who also explained the recommendations of the masters across the Atlantic for him. “My father, Skender Shehu testified at the trial, told me that the Americans wanted to influence the mitigation of the class war and offered him the variant of the Khrushchevs, with families with poor political circumstances.
He told me that he had instructed the Minister of the Interior to find me a girl with a bad biographical composition and Feçorr Shehu recommended me Silva Turdiu”. Furthermore, the widow and the penalized son of the former prime minister testify other details in the breakdown of the indictment as members of a terrorist organization, which would overthrow the popular power and the dictatorship of the proletariat in Albania…)!
The depositions of Fiqret Shehu
Fiqirete Shehu: “The first agency meeting took place on the way to the big park in Stockholm, on May 16 or 17, 1981, I don’t remember exactly. We were divided into two groups, the accompanying group in front, while Gani Kodra, me and my son, Skenderi, followed.
A distance was created between the two groups. The person from the American agency was nearby. I hastened my steps and made the agent meeting. I received the order, to act more actively Mehmeti. On this matter, Gani Kodra was aware that Skenderi had informed him, just as he listened to Skenderi when he told me that this is the person you should meet.
Even in the second case, when the second agent meeting took place with the same person from the American agency in Gothenburg at the “Europa” hotel, Gani Kodra was informed by Skenderi and acted as a guard at the elevator, while my son was guarding in the corridor.
Everything to avoid being noticed. My agent meeting was very short, a few minutes. His message was about accelerating the activity for the physical elimination of Enver Hoxha. It was not by chance that Mehmet Shehu had chosen exactly Gani Kodra, one of his most loyal, whom he sent with his son to
Sweden, as a companion at a time when Skenderi had been dragged into his dirty work as a liaison with foreign agencies”. Memorei.al
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