Memorie.al publishes a rare photo belonging to the month of April 1968 which was fixed during the trial held for four days in a row in the Church of the Sigmatine Sisters in the city of Shkodra, which at that time had turned into a Youth Club and became in charge of five Catholic clergy; Father Gegë Luma, Dom Frano Ilia, Dom Mark Dushi, Dom Zef Bici, Dom Mark Hasi and two believers Alfons Radovani and Kol Marlacaj, who were taken as defendants “for hostile activities and agitation and propaganda against the popular power”.
The trial against them that took place with great fanfare (unmasking public trial with open doors and atoplants) “in the context of the fight against religious beliefs and backward customs”, which had been undertaken by the communist regime of Enver Hoxha since 1966, (time when the demolition of places of worship began, such as churches, mosques, monasteries, tekkes, monasteries, etc.), was presided over by Nuri Resmja, President of the District Court of Shkodra, who issued the decision on April 25, sentencing him to death, with shooting, Dom Zef Bici and Dom Mark Dushi, with the accusation: “High treason against the homeland” and “Vatican agents”, while with 25 years in prison each, Dom Frano Ilian, Dom Mark Hasin, Father Gegë Lumën, etc.
Only Dom Frano Ilia was able to get out of communist prisons alive and serve as a priest again even after the 1990s, initially in the Church of Delbnish in the Kurbin district (where he was arrested in 1967), and on April 25, 1993, to be ordained Bishop by Pope John Paul II himself (during the visit of the head of the Holy See to Albania), while Father Gegë Luma and Dom Zef Bici, failed to see the fall of the communist regime, as they passed away before 90s. The photo in question, which is published for the first time by Memorie.al, was first published in the magazine “In the service of the people” (a body of the Ministry of Internal Affairs) in 1968 and until 1990, was exhibited in one of exhibits of the Atheist Museum of the city of Shkodra.
