– The unknown story of the famous former boxer Ndoc Gjoni from Shkodra, who after suffering 12 years in Burrel prison, tried to escape again from the Buna river in 1980 –
Memorie.al / When Ndoc Gjoni decided to escape for the first time, he took the road to Elbasan, where his brother, Zef Gjoni, was doing his military service. Ndoc Gjoni is the legend of Albanian boxing, who went through a difficult ordeal in communist prisons and then was killed by the dictatorship, in the second attempt to escape from the communist hell.
This is how brother Zefi recounts that meeting that would define a difficult path for Ndoc Gjoni: “Ndoc came to Elbasan to meet me and I clearly saw that he had decided to run away. The way he spoke, the way he behaved was understandable. Therefore, after 20 days, he escaped.”
The most unknown road of Ndoc Gjon, passes from the border point of Muriqani, to arrive after many vicissitudes, in the Yugoslav land. Just when he thought he had won the challenge, he would find himself in dire circumstances.
The Yugoslav neighbors, at that time, had good relations with the Albanian state, and people who broke the border returned to their country with an agreement. After 20 days of stay in Yugoslav land, Ndoc Gjoni would return to Albania from the Yugoslav UDB, being exchanged with two Yugoslavs, who had done the same thing as him, crossing the border to our land.
12 years in prison in Burrel
It was in 1968, when the famous Shkodran boxer was sentenced by Enver Hoxha’s communist regime to 12 years of political prison for the escape attempt he made in the notorious Burrell prison. They are very difficult years, as well as for other co-sufferers in the communist hell. His co-sufferers express themselves in the best words, by the way how he resisted these sufferings, how he always expressed his convictions, against the state of that time. Ndoc Gjoni, had served all the years in prison, not benefiting from any pardon, as sometimes happened when the regime decided to reduce the sentence. Ndoci was released from prison in 1980.
In an effort to start his life from scratch, leaving behind his youthful passions, Ndoci got married, started a family and started working at the “Drini” Plant. But this effort would not last long, only a few months after his release from prison.
The second arrest
With the photograph of his mother and granddaughter in his pocket, Ndoc Gjoni would once again start the arduous path, the second attempt to escape from Albania. Her mother and granddaughter were her dearest people. It is the same itinerary, it starts near the border point of Muriqani and continues towards Yugoslavian land.
But this trip would be the last of his life, because the State Security had followed him step by step, since the day he left the prison cells, until the last moment, when one of the executioners had emptied mercilessly pistol bullets, on his head.
It was said that he drowned in the Buna River, trying to cross the border, but the truth was quite different, because Ndoc Gjoni was killed by the regime. The truth about the black fate of Ndoc Gjon was learned only after the fall of the communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha and his successor, Ramiz Alia, in 1990.
His brother, Zef Gjoni, quickly started trying to find out what had happened to his brother, Ndoc. “People from the State Security came and told us that Ndoci drowned in the water while trying to cross the border. That’s all. We couldn’t do much in that period. Only after the advent of Democracy, I learned the truth.
One of the frontiersmen of that period came and met me and explained the whole incident. According to him, they saw Ndoci in the water, they followed him from behind, crossing into Yugoslav land, and when he came out of the water, they hit him with a bullet in the head and left him there. This is more certain”, says Zef Gjoni, former basketball player and famous boxing coach of the team “Vllaznia” from Shkodra. Memorie.al
