Memorie.al / After fainting, I opened my eyes with great difficulty; my whole body ached; my head was about to burst, and I couldn’t feel my wrists and ankles. In the isolation cell where they had taken me, so I wouldn’t hear the last sound of the two condemned men, Rustem Dashi was sitting worried by my head. We are from the same village and convicted together. I moved with difficulty and managed to lean against the wall. I knew that Rustem had been in the cell with Vilson for the last 30 days. I was anxious to know what last wish (amanetin) Vilson might have left and what he experienced in the final moments when they came to take him.
I couldn’t wait until I met Rustem. He teared up. “Bedri, lying bound head and foot for 35 days is very difficult. Your body becomes covered in sores, your hands even worse; you become dazed from the heavy smell of the helmet on your head. Sweat ran down his wounds from the scorching heat.
His left hand was nearly black from the handcuffs, dating back to the investigation in Tirana. They wanted to send him on a mission to Belgium, to your uncle. That’s what he told me. Kadri Hazbiu himself had come to the isolation cell several times, but Vilson never accepted.”
“Rustem, I know this because I talked through the wall with Vilson and Genc; I want to know about the final moments, when they took him from the cell.” Rustem told me: “That night he didn’t eat even though I begged him, because he had received food from his family. Eat a little Vili, from your mother’s hand, and don’t worry, who knows what God has decided,” I told him.
He refused, saying he would eat later. And so, I turned my back towards the door. He sat silent, numb. After a few hours, the whistling of the corridor’s iron door was heard.
I had started to doze off, but as soon as I heard them coming, I jumped up. The corridor buzzed with their footsteps; first, they opened Genc’s door. The sound of handcuffs was heard. I thought the pardon had arrived, and they were releasing him. His cell was closed, and the door opposite opened.
Only silence there; no words, no movement, nothing! After a while, the footsteps headed towards us, our cell opened, and I convinced myself that the pardon had arrived. The head of the investigation, Selimi, appeared at the door. Two police officers entered inside.
The Head of the Branch, Merdar Hasa, did not enter, staying in the corridor, accompanied by some civilians. I stood up and backed against the wall. “Wake him up,” the policeman calls to me. “I’m not sleeping,” I told him. Then Vilson spoke: “Rustem, turn me around a little.”
I figured out why they came; today marks 35 days, and so today my torture of lying down handcuffed head to foot ends.” Axhemi (the police supervisor) with the key in hand removed his leg irons and the chain connecting his legs to his hands.
They lifted him to his feet, placed a rope on his handcuffed hands, and passed it around his body. I was just trembling. The other end of the rope was held by someone else. “Come on,” one of them shouted. I took his jacket and threw it over his shoulders. Vilson took half a step, stopped, and turned towards me: – “Rustem,” he says to me with that manly voice of his, “forgive me, you have served me these many days.
I will leave you a last wish , because you will get out of prison sooner than Bedri. You saw how the trial happened and how it went. I haven’t admitted anything because I didn’t commit any crime. Tell them at home that I didn’t shame them. Diana and the girl should look after their own affairs. This was my fate. I didn’t choose it. Farewell Rustem!”
I froze, pinned against the wall. They left. The outer door rattled again while my ears buzzed incessantly: – “Rustem forgive me, Vilson said, tell them… that I didn’t shame them… Diana should look after her own affairs… with the girl… whom I haven’t seen with my own eyes…”!
Some time passed with these voices in my ears, when suddenly the cell opened to receive breakfast. I didn’t feel like eating. I begged the policeman to move me from that cell; I couldn’t stay there anymore. They took me out, leaving Vilson behind with his words, the blanket, and the bowl of soup in the corner of the cell.
With one hand, Rustem held the cigarette, and with the other, he wiped the tears streaming down his face; and I, listening to him, was completely delirious from this world. Rustem told me that he had been in the cell with Genc for 5 days.
He was terrified because he had never seen a man bound head and foot like Genc. “Even though he was shaken, I told Genc: ‘what did you say at the trial like that, why you did this?'”
He was tearful and didn’t give me any answer. He asked the guard two or three times to bring the head of the investigation, Selim Caka, but he never appeared. He told me these words with tears in his eyes.” / Memorie.al
