By Dashnor Kaloçi
Part Seven
Memorie.al / From the end of November 1944, when he came to power, until his death in 1985, the communist dictator Enver Hoxha, wanting to resemble his idol, Joseph Visaranovic Stalin, and following his “path”, from time to time undertook purges in the top leadership of the Albanian People’s Liberation Army, which he began with Koci Xoxe (and his group) in 1948-49 and ended in 1981-82, with the so-called “Hostile Group of Mehmet Shehu and Kadri Hazbiu”. In this time interval of more than four decades (he began the purges in 1941), as is now known, he eliminated almost all the founders of the Albanian Communist Party, members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Albanian People’s Party and the main leaders of the so-called “Anti-Fascist National Liberation War”, so much so that from 1960 until the collapse of the communist regime in 1990, only Pilo Peristeri had escaped prison or exile, enjoying the privileges of a lifelong candidate of the Political Bureau and the function of director of the “Enver Hoxha” Autotractor Combine!
But, unlike what he had done until the beginning of the 70s, where Enver Hoxha’s “sword” had mainly fallen on the senior leadership of the CPSU (Koci Xoxe, Kristo Themelko, Sotir Vullkanim Ramadan Çitaku, Tuk Jakova, Bedri Spahiu, Liri Gega, Gjin Marku, Koço Tashko, Liri Belishova, etc.), whom he had accused of “deviators of the Party line” and had condemned as “traitors and enemies of the people”, in the mid-70s, the dictator Enver Hoxha began to attack several members of the Politburo, who also held ministerial positions, such as Abdyl Këllezi and Koço Theodhosi, accusing them of being “saboteurs” of the Socialist Economy!
And just as he had done with Beqir Balluku, Petrit Dume and Hito Çako, (who were sentenced to death and shot), where to prove “their hostile activity”, Enver Hoxha sentenced to prison and exile a large group of senior officers, as well as the so-called “Saboteur Group of the Economy”, where in addition to Këllez and Theodhos, the two ministers Kiço Ngjela and Vasil Kati were also part, several senior officials of the Trade sector, directors and well-known specialists, such as Andrea Manço, Ahmet Jegeni, Bardhyl Frashëri etc., were also accused and sentenced, as well as of the Oil sector, such as; directors, engineers and well-known specialists, such as; Filip Nashi, Beqir Alija, Koço Plaku, Milto Gjikopulli, Protoko Murati, Dhimitër Stefa, Jani Konomi, Nuredin Skrapari, etc.
As we will see in the documents in question, the investigative process against the so-called “Saboteur Group of the Economy”, which was carried out by the Ministry of Interior and State Security, with fabricated accusations and evidence false or obtained under torture, etc., continued the Supreme Court of the People’s Republic of Albania headed by Aran Çela, “channeling” the accusations also from the “legal” side, to “confirm” what Enver Hoxha had said in the Plenums of the Central Committee of the Albanian People’s Party, against Abdyl Këllez, Koço Theodhos, Kiço Ngjela, Vasil Kati, etc.
As for all of the above, after the 90s, much has been said and written about all of them, both by members of those “groups”, their families, etc., etc., Memory. al has obtained the archival documents of the Supreme Court of the People’s Republic of Albania of that time and the former Presidium of the People’s Assembly, where the “Hostile Group of the Economy”, “Trade” and “Oil” were examined, which see the light of day for the first time, documents which we are publishing together with the relevant photos and facsimiles.
In the first part and second of this series of articles, we are publishing documents concerning the former director of Makina-import, Andrea Manço, originally from the village of Boboshticë in Korça, whose brother Todo Manço, for years had served as chief engineer and director of the Bulqiza chrome mine, and also for several legislatures in a row as a deputy of the People’s Assembly, who when he passed away on November 6, 1974, was given a magnificent funeral ceremony, with homage in the center of the capital, where, in addition to Enver Hoxha, the entire senior leadership of the Albanian People’s Party, headed by Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu, participated. While Todo Manço, (“Hero of Socialist Labor”) would receive all these honors, his brother, Andrea, about two years later, would be tortured in the cells of the State Security and sentenced to death by firing squad, as an “enemy of the people” and “agent of the secret services” “foreign”, and his grave has not yet been found!
Continued from the previous issue
DECISION OF THE HIGH COURT PRESIDED BY ARANIT ÇELA, SENT TO THE PRESIDIUM OF THE PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY, ON THE CONVICTION OF THE “ENEMIAL GROUP” IN THE OIL SECTOR, LEAD BY FILIP NASHI, BEQIR ALIJA, KOÇO PLAKU, MILTO DJIKOPULLI, ETC.
RELATION
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA Tirana on 21.6.1976
SUPREME COURT
No.381
Presidium of the People’s Assembly
Tirana
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA
SUPREME COURT
No.12.
Constitutional Reg.
No.13 of the decision
DECISION
IN THE NAME OF THE PEOPLE
The Supreme Court of the People’s Republic of Albania composed of:
President of the session: Eleni Selenica, Mr. President of the Supreme Court
Acting Judge of the session: Mit’hat Goskova
Deputy Judge of the session: Fehmi Legreta
Assisted by the Secretary Sadik Mema, with the participation of the Prosecutor Sotiraq Samara, the Deputy Prosecutor General, from 11-17.6.1976, considered in a closed court session, the criminal case No. 12 concerning the defendants:
- The defendant Filip Nashi, based on articles 72, 73/1 in combination with article 12, 199/II and 48 of the Criminal Code, 25 years of deprivation of liberty, confiscation of movable and immovable property, loss of electoral rights for 5 years, removal of decorations and titles held, removal of pension rights for 5 years and compensation for the damage caused by him.
- Defendant Beqir Alija, based on articles 72, 73/1, in combination with articles 12, 199/II and 48 of the Criminal Code, with 25 years of deprivation of liberty, confiscation of movable and immovable property, loss of electoral rights for 5 years, removal of decorations and titles he holds, removal of pension rights for 5 years and compensation for the damage caused by him.
- Defendant Koço Plaku, based on articles 72,73/1, in combination with articles 12, 64 and 48 of the Criminal Code, with Death by shooting, confiscation of movable and immovable property, loss of electoral rights for 5 years, removal of decorations and titles he holds, removal of pension rights for 5 years, and compensation for the damage caused by him.
- Defendant Milto Gjikopulli, based on articles 72, 73/1, in combination with article 12 of the Criminal Code, 64 and 48 of the Criminal Code, with Death, execution, confiscation of movable and immovable property, loss of electoral rights for 5 years, removal of decorations and titles he holds, removal of pension rights for 5 years and compensation for the damage caused by him.
- Defendant Protoko Murati, based on articles 72, 73/1, in combination with article 12 of the Criminal Code, with 23 years of deprivation of liberty, confiscation of movable and immovable property, loss of electoral rights for 5 years, removal of decorations and titles he holds, removal of pension rights for 5 years and compensation for the damage caused by him.
- The defendant Dhimitër Stefa, based on articles 72,73/1, in combination with article 12 of the Criminal Code. 48 of the Criminal Code, with 22 years of deprivation of liberty, confiscation of movable and immovable property, loss of electoral rights for 5 years, removal of decorations and titles he holds, removal of pension rights for 5 years and compensation for the damage caused by him.
- Defendant Jani Konomi, based on articles 72, 73/1, in combination with article 12 of the Criminal Code and 48 of the Criminal Code, with 23 years of deprivation of liberty, confiscation of movable and immovable property, loss of electoral rights for 5 years, removal of decorations and titles held, removal of pension rights for 5 years and compensation for the damage caused by him.
- Defendant Nuredin Skrapari, based on article 72 in combination with article 12 of the Criminal Code and 49 of the Criminal Code, with 20 years of deprivation of liberty, confiscation of movable and immovable property, loss of electoral rights for 5 years, removal of decorations and titles held, removal of pension rights for 5 years and compensation for the damage caused by him.
After hearing the defense and closing arguments of the defendants Filip Nashi, Beqir Alija, Milto Gjikopulli, Protoko Murati, Dhimitër Stefa, Jano Konomi and Nuredin Skrapari, who asked for mercy, and the defense and closing arguments of the defendant Koço Plaku, who did not ask for mercy, but to be punished with the greatest severity and refused to be a spy;
Notes
The Trial established that the enemy group in the Oil and Gas industry, led by Filip Nashi and his associates Beqir Alija, Koço Plaku, Protoko Murati, Milto Gjikopulli, Dhimitër Stefa, Jani Konomi and Nuredin Skrapari, having been in hostile positions for a long time, dreaming and working to overthrow the popular power and to be suitable for the regime they wanted, but which they would never achieve, just as all enemies and traitors did not achieve and have not achieved, have severely sabotaged our national economy, in one of its most important sectors such as Oil and Gas, the main raw material for industry, for defense and for the entire economy.
The trial of the case, fully confirming the investigative data, revealed that this enemy and saboteur group has completely sabotaged the implementation of the Decision of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee on Oil, No. 154 dated 10.11.1967, has sabotaged the implementation of the Decisions of the 6th Party Congress, the conclusions of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee on the Oil and Gas industry of 1970, as well as the Decision of the Council of Ministers No. 38 dated 5-6 March 1970, issued specifically for the problems of Oil and Gas.
The Oil and Gas Industry in our country, due to its great importance for the protection of the country’s freedom and independence and for the development and construction of the material-technical base of socialism, has previously been attacked and sabotaged by both the Yugoslav revisionists, the internal enemies Tuk Jakova and Panajot Plaku, and in the fifties, the Soviet revisionists.
The evidence presented proved that the sabotage group led by Filip Nashi and with collaborators Beqir Alina, Koço Plaku, Protoko Murati, Milto Gjikopulli, Dhimitër Stefi, Jani Konomi and Nuredin Skraparin, recognizing the strategy of our Party for oil, to make it a weapon in the hands of the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat, for the construction of socialism and for its protection from the dangers posed by the fierce imperialist-revisionist siege, struck precisely this strategy in order to weaken the country’s economy, the defensive power of our socialist Fatherland, in order to then have a free path for their further hostile activity.
The defendants themselves claimed with their own mouths that by sabotaging; “they intended to weaken the economy, to discredit the tasks of the 6th Congress on Oil; to weaken the country’s defensive power and the people’s power”… hoping, as defendant Filip Nashi stated; “in changing the situation and as revisionists, to be suitable for the future situation as well.
Based on the numerous facts in the concrete actions of the enemy and saboteur group in Oil, in what its participants themselves have claimed, it is clear that their sabotage activity was a continuation of the previous hostile and sabotage activity carried out in the Oil and Gas industry and especially a direct continuation of the hostile and sabotage work carried out in this important sector by the Khrushchevite revisionists.
Also, from the evidence administered, it was fully proven that the hostile activity of the Oil sabotage group is closely connected and directly encouraged by the enemy leading elements who had taken their place in the State Planning Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Mining and constitutes one of the links of the great conspiracy, which had as its aim the overthrow of the people’s power and socialism in our country.
Thus, this hostile-saboteur activity, as The data of the investigative and judicial process confirmed, is closely linked to the hostile and anti-party activity developed in our country during the last years in the field of ideology, in the hostile activity, conspirators and putschists in the army, led by Beqir Balluku, Petrit Dume and Hito Çako.
The fact that the defendants Filip Nashi and Beqir Alija, flagrantly and deliberately violating the line of the Party and its and the Government’s orientations, in terms of disciplining and administering foreign literature, have ordered and allowed to enter the Oil system, books and magazines with hostile bourgeois-revisionist content, in some of which it is openly spoken against the Party of Labor of Albania and the People’s Republic of Albania, which are subject to free use!
The fact that these defendants and others such as; Koço Plaku, Milto Gjikopulli and Protoko Mrati, have translated and commented on articles by various revisionists and have written and published their own articles with hostile content, but it shows that their activity to distort the minds of oil workers and especially specialists, to distance them from the Marxist-Leninist ideology of the working class, is a continuation of the hostile and anti-party activity developed in the field of art and culture.
Also: the fact that Beqir Balluku, in his frequent meetings with the enemy Piro Gusho and the defendant Pilip Nashi, was interested in the “development of the Oil industry”, gave orders, i.e., requested its sabotage, expressing himself for “opening the taps of the nozzles”, for “taking production during the year, without thinking about the perspective, because that is what future generations think about”, that;
“They had Lipa in their headquarters”, that “Lipa had to rely on Beqir Alija”, etc., and that, as the defendant Filip Nashi himself claimed, he carried out the orders given, i.e. has sabotaged, convincingly shows the close connection of the sabotage activity in Naftë, carried out by the sabotage group led by Filip Nashi and with collaborators Boqir Alija, Milto Gjikopulli, Koço Plaku, Protoko Murati, Dhimitër Stefë, Jani Konomi and Nuredin Skraparin, to the conspiratorial activity of the coups in the army. / Memorie.al
To be continued in the next issue
