By Fatmira Nikolli
Memorie.al / A young, attractive boy, with curly hair, stands cold and with bright eyes in front of the camera. When this photo was taken, the son of a former prime minister had returned from France, where he had studied and settled in Tirana. From Paris, where his father had been consul, he had also brought the spirit of freedom and human rights. At the time, in his early 30s, he was handcuffed: he opposed the newly established regime in Albania, and the apparatus in front of him would fix his youthful image, for a file that would only be closed in the 1990s. . With a brother and a sister, who lived between Italy and France, he is alone in Albania and “alone” in the cell where he awaited the acts-accusations, such as; “agent of France” and “friend of foreigners”, who had not yet fled from “liberated” Tirana! He refuses to answer questions according to the direction of the investigators and seriously insults the one who becomes a witness. It is accused that when he plays tennis, during vacations, he talks and gives information. He does not accept the accusations, and even “maintains a hostile attitude” with the investigators.
The Authority for Information on the Files of the former State Security has published part of the file on Jusuf Vrioni. Born on March 16, 1916, in the well-known Berat family of the Vrions, Yusuf was educated in Paris, after the appointment of his father as a diplomat. In the 1920s, Iliaz bey Vrioni was decorated with the High Order of the Legion of Honor by the French state.
Educated in law in France and Italy, a high-level intellectual, Jusuf Vrioni returned to Albania in 1943. On September 13, 1947, he was arrested by the communist regime, with the accusation; “for criminal offenses against the People and the State, as a member of the traitorous Social-Democratic organization and as an agent of French espionage in Tirana”.
ARCHIVE DOCUMENTS, PUBLISHED BY THE ‘AUTHORITY’
After the extremely difficult investigation of more than a year, Jusuf Vrioni was sentenced by the Military Court of Tirana, on July 8, 1950, to 15 years of deprivation of liberty and compulsory labor, “for espionage activity in the service of France and various connections with foreigners “, an indictment filed and signed by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mehmet Shehu.
It was written in the indictment that: “Before the investigation, he took one of the most hostile positions, remaining very determined on the path of betrayal and not accepting any of the charges that were attributed to him, but the worst thing is that none way of not answering the questions that were asked to him, claiming that these are irrelevant and disconnected questions, in a word, he demanded that the investigator follow such a procedural form, which he wanted, and this he always did at one time, when you put yourself in difficult positions and when you didn’t have any basis of defense”. He served his sentence in Burrel prison.
After his release from prison and exile in Fier, in 1960, he was appointed a translator in Tirana, at the “8 Nëntori” Publishing House, where he translated into French the books of Ismail Kadare, the works of Enver Hoxha, as well as other books of the regime communist and his propaganda. Jusuf Vrioni, was followed for 27 years in a row, by the State Security, in active processing 2/A and 2/B, from 29.2.1964, until 28.04.1991, when the file was archived.
In the documents of the processing file no. 1452, it is quoted: “He is a rich feudal class; his father was prime minister, as well as minister plenipotentiary (ambassador) in France, at the time of Zog. He himself was with Legality and after his release he was sentenced to prison as a spy for the French. He is a member of the “People’s Party”.
Have birdish tendencies. Friendship with the English minister (ambassador).
Vrioni expressed reservations about the “Special Court” against “war criminals” and described it as incompetent, “where the law was applied arbitrarily”.
“There have been criticisms for lack of freedom of the press; uneducated administration, and has asked foreign missions not to recognize the government, which came out of the elections…”!
Yes, according to reports, Vrioni doubted the justice of the communist courts. According to him, “people have been attacked for a word of mouth, for expressing their free opinion…”! “About the torture, everyone has given one word. True democracy is not established by prisons and murders.” Besides Vrioni, more than 17 people from his family circle were kept under observation.
For more about the processing file of Isuf (Jusuf) Iliaz Vrioni, which was de-classified by AIDSSH on 21.1.2019, all those interested can familiarize themselves with its content, in accordance with law 45/2015. Memorie.al
