NIKOLLË LOKA
Av. ALFDRED DUKA
NIKOLIN KURTI
Part thirty-two
– THE FORECAST MURDER OF A CLERGYMAN OF THE RENAISSANCE –
Memorie.al / Before we begin to briefly analyze the investigative and judicial file in charge of the defendant Shtjefën Kurti and others, for the reader we will make a parenthesis of the right and its history in human society, with the goal of coming to our criminal and procedural law, from its beginnings and throughout the years of the dictatorship.
Continues from last issue
A review of the first trial, to understand the second trial
The amount of thefts committed during the years 1962 to 1970, according to the accusation, is in the value of 5,900 ALL, or fifty-nine thousand old ALL!!! This amount has “mined” the Gurezi cooperative!!! These thefts are sabotage!!! For these thefts, which are called sabotage, they gave a sentence of death, shooting and five years of removal of electoral rights after the shooting! (Oh God, we complain about what the Ottoman Turks, Greeks, Serbs, Germans and Italians have done to us!!!), 72 years in prison for the other five defendants, as well as 3 years for each disenfranchisement, after serving the sentence!
Out of respect for the reader, I will not make any comments about the following two paragraphs, the reader would understand their contradictions, which are so serious and blatant, that they lead anyone to suspect that the representative of the prosecution, can may not have been good psychically, for allowing so many gross blunders on a single page of his claim to fame. But we have nothing to do with this phenomenon, since then these “madnesses”, like summer becoming winter, then the programmatic dinner for sabotaging the cooperative at the end of 1969, I stopped the thefts, as a result the sabotage, and so on turn into court decisions and that of the Supreme Court at all, without even excluding the Presidium of the People’s Assembly! They have all been! Let’s see! Here’s how:
“… The hostile activity of these defendants reached its highest level under the direction of the defendant Shtjefen Kurti during 1969. In the summer of 1969, the defendant Shtjefen Kurti, Zef Nishi Pjetër Biba meets in the room of the defendant Shtjefen, where they develop all three conversations with a hostile character, such as for the overthrow of the government and others. In these cases, the defendant Shtjefen becomes aware of the thefts that Zef Nishi was carrying out with Pjetër Bibi, and at the end of the conversation, he told the other defendants that: steal, because you steal your sweat. Defendant Pjetër Biba explains that in the summer of 1969, at the end of our conversations, Shtjefëni said: steal because you get your sweat. Earlier, – says the defendant, – I had explained to Shtjefen that Zef Nish and I were stealing. In relation to this, the defendant Shtjefen Kurti said: I told Zef Nish that it is better to steal, so that the income of the people is reduced, and the people rise up and destroy the cooperative, even rise and others to steal.
At the end of 1969, at the dinner organized with the participation of the defendants: Shtjefën Kurti, Mark Marku, Zef Nishi and Pjetër Biba, where Davë and Prena Biba assisted for a time, in addition to talks about the overthrow of the government, to escape abroad of the state and others, it is said by the defendant Shtjefen that: they stole with the aim of making people unhappy, of reducing the value of the working day, of raising people in revolt for the destruction of the cooperative. Even after that, – explain the defendants: Mark Marku, Zef Nishi and Pjetër Biba, we continued the thefts to carry out this order. The conversations held at this dinner, apart from the four defendants, are also explained by the witnesses Dava and Prena Biba”.
A little below it follows: “…We think that the statements of the defendants Agostin Preçi and Mark Marku are completely reliable, bearing in mind the remorseful and sincere attitude of these two defendants, as well as the denial attitude held by the defendant Fran Ndoci for this charge. The fact that after 1968, the three defendants did not commit acts of this nature should not serve as an argument to dismiss this accusation, because as the defendants explain, they were separated from each other and were not given the opportunity to act together.
The guilt of the defendants: Shtjefën Kurti, Mark Marku, Agustin Preçi, Pjetër Biba, Zef Nishi and Fran Ndoci, for the charge of articles 72 and 73 of the Criminal Code, are proven by their statements made to the investigator and the court, with the attributions of one to the other, as well as with the witnesses questioned in this regard. Even the accusations against the defendant Ndue Leti, according to articles 73/1, 80/1 and 285/2 of the Criminal Code, are proven with the statements made by him to the investigator, with the attributions of the defendants: Mark Marku, Pjetër Biba, Zef Nishi , Fran Ndoci as well as with the explanations of the witnesses: Bajram Cefi, Pashk Miri, Gjok Nika, Martin Rroku and others, with the minutes of the inspection of the apartment, as well as with the document dated 28/11/1969”.
With the “actions” below, “sabotage activity is attempted”! And with what? The criminal procedural law of the time required that activities of this nature must be proven with an expert report, by experts in the field, who had knowledge of the level of expertise! However, if we take all these actions of the defendants for granted, in no way are we dealing with elements of the criminal offense of sabotage, but with another criminal offense, the one provided by Article 85 of the Criminal Code of the time, a provision which provides that: “Destruction, or intentional damage to state and social property, when the offense does not constitute a crime against the state, is punished by deprivation of liberty for five years. And these crimes, when committed by fire, or by other means that bring common danger, or when they cause great damage, or other serious consequences, are punished with deprivation of liberty from five to fifteen years, with or without confiscation of property and when there are particularly serious consequences, even death”.
It is understood by everyone that in none of the forms of the objective side of the actions of these defendants, we have any element of the criminal offense of sabotage. The prosecutor and the “craziest” courts could qualify these actions under Article 85, the first paragraph of the Criminal Code of the time, which had a maximum penalty of five years of imprisonment.
Below we come to the famous paragraph of sabotage!!! “…In 1968, the defendants: Mark Marku, Agostin Preçi and Fran Ndoci, after having previously developed hostile activities between them in the form of agitation and propaganda, being connected since 1968, with the defendant Shtjefën Kurti, talk with each other, with the intention of sabotaging, to carry out weak works in the agricultural cooperative. The defendant Agostin Preçi explained: “I, Mark Marku and Fran Ndoci, talked in 1968 about working badly in the cooperative, for its destruction. For this purpose, – says the defendant Agostin, – when we were working in the fertilizer distribution, with the aim of preventing the tractor from working, we left a part of the chemical fertilizer without distribution. Also, – says the defendant Agosti, – when we were working with the sale of corn, the three of us together with the intention of sabotage removed the healthy plants and left the weak ones.”
This is the conclusive essence of the way the sabotage was carried out, for which a death sentence was given, by firing squad and five years of disenfranchisement after the shooting, 72 years in prison for the other five defendants, as well as 3 years each for each electoral disenfranchisement, after serving the sentence!
Witnesses in the trial against Shtjefën Kurti
40 witnesses appeared in the trial.
REPORT
“During the time I stayed in a room with Shqefën Kurti, regarding the accusation against him, he told me: I, says Shqefën, it is true that I organized the thefts also to carry out sabotage, but they were strong and discovered us. Me, – says Shqefni, many times I was assigned to the warehouses of the cooperative to do cleaning, but here I filled sacks with corn, buckwheat, wheat, etc. During the time I was working here, I took corn and hid it outside the warehouse, and at night I came and took it home, mixed corn and corn together, as if the rats had eaten them, and threw them out with a bin in the garbage. In the house where I lived, I always gave money to cook for Dava, the daughter of the owner of the house, who brought me too, because I didn’t cook myself. The storekeeper, who before I had a worker in my house, loved me very much. I talked to him at length about the religion that ruined him, why these people are without religion, I told him the news I heard on foreign shows and he agreed with everything, but he kept telling me: Be careful, don’t talk to anyone anymore put in jail! I also gave this storekeeper an ‘Omega’ brand pocket watch, which he still has. When I left work at dinner, he would ask me what do you need and constantly give me something from the warehouse. One day the storekeeper told me that from the cooperative’s warehouse, I gave the Party secretary, when the girl got married, olive oil, eggs, and groats for no money, and he didn’t even pay them at all.
With Luigj Preka, and he was a very good boy, – says Shqefni, – I talked repeatedly, regarding the cooperative, that we get a little ALL, we work all day and we are suffering to eat. We have constantly talked about religion, that in the 20th century these churches are being destroyed.
Why you don’t remove the cross, he told me. I do not remove it because I am a man of Christ. We have glorified Christ, says Shqefni, because here in Albania they don’t have it long. I showed Luigi the news broadcast by foreign radio stations and he, Luigi, approved of all of it. One day while talking with Luigi, Zef Arsi, Luigi’s brother-in-law, who was the chairman of the cooperative before, now an agronomist, comes and I winked at Luigi so that they don’t talk such words, but Luigi said that you should not be afraid of Zefi or Pater, because he is ours and we talked only about religion, exactly what you say, said Zefi, or Shqefa, and I continued to talk about what I knew, what Christ says.
I met with Zef Arsi several times, who was interested in getting me some light work at the Cooperative.
One day, – says Shqefni, – I met Preng Fran Dacin, I greeted him, and he said I came home, but I couldn’t find you, maybe I have some work, and he started asking me how the work is not done, because he had a child and wanted to baptize him and I agreed, because that’s what Christ says. Fran says that we should do this work between us, so that no one finds out about us. We sat in a place with Fran and talked at length, we talked about religion – about the churches that destroyed them, about the money he used and the state gave us a little. Fran agreed most of all. He told me: what do you think, Father Shqefni, do those who have the power in their hands, and I told him: Whenever you work, don’t work well for these cooperatives, they are not for us. I told him; when you have the chance, take it from the cooperative because you are not committing a crime. God forgives you for everything, I told him, and come on, confess with me so that you can forgive your sins.
At my house, – says Shqefni, – night after night we would gather, chat, and listen to the radio like: Pjetri, Zefi, Prena, Dava, etc. One day, – says Shqefni, – I heard on the Voice of America radio that Stalin’s daughter was in America and had become an American citizen. She says that she wrote a book during the entire 40-year activity of the Soviet Union, where she writes about Stalin and finally says that, in recent years, Stalin had become like a madman, he is no longer in his right mind, he had become mad with the people of the country himself, he didn’t talk at all. Stalin’s daughter wrote these things in a book.
These investigators, – says Shqefni, – insistently ask me for a book that I have translated against the communist doctrine, but I have burned it. They have trusted me to some extent, but they constantly mention it to me, because what two people know, you should tell them first, and what only I know, I will try not to tell them. I know they will torture me, but I’m waiting to see how it ends.
Shqefni says that Luigji’s brother, Nush Preka, has stolen a lot, especially when Zefi was chairman and now he was continuing that work, but Nushi had a good chance, because Luigji supplied them. This is what Pjetri told me, that they are stealing during the day and not at night, but they are very determined, I don’t believe they will tell.
Those from the investigation ask me that I did not use Prena or Dave, but I do not accept this, – says Shqefni.
He talked with Pater Doçi constantly when he met him. He advised him to be careful, not to talk to anyone against the government or anything smaller, as well as with Father Troshan, he talked against the Party and the government, about religion, churches. To try, – Patër Troshani told him, as much as you can, to help unhappy people, especially in relation to religion and churches.
R E P O R T
From the 24th to the 26/8/1970, when I was with the one named Dom Shqefni, he told me these things:
I am under arrest, because I pushed some villagers in Gurëz village, where I live, to steal the goods of the cooperative, who stole it, in January of the following year, in the house where I live, we gathered one night, we had a dinner, only family members and Bardhoku were present. There, I talked to them about stealing as much as possible from the cooperative, sabotaging them, I talked about the situation in Albania, I commented on the news that foreign radio broadcasts, about the rest of Albania. Constantly, – says Shqefni, I have talked with the family where I lived, especially with the landlord, about our future, under the popular power regime. I told Biba’s prey that our day will come. We will take Enver from city to city, to give an account and to drag him; To Dava, I will send her to Italy to make her a nun.
I translated a book from Italian to Albanian against communist doctrine. Only the daughter of the owner of the house has this day. She has told these but, I do not give you anything. I told them that I gave the book to Dom Mark Dushi. I burned the other materials that I have behind.
At home, Shqefni says, women and men always come to me, Llesh Miri’s friend, whom I know before her husband was shot, always comes to me. I spoke with her before, because her husband was a good nationalist. I helped that woman as much as I could. There have been women who have confessed or they have asked widows for marriage. I have fulfilled the wishes of the people I trust the most.
With Prena Biba’s husband, who was sentenced to one year, I had constant conversations; we listened to the radio in different shows. I filled his mind to marry another woman, because she did not have children. Prena and he listened to my word, as the man of Christ. I say Shqefni, – I am a nationalist, I do not like the communist doctrine and I have made this clear to all the families of the nationalists who have come home. These ruined our churches in the 20th century; they took our people by the neck.
Thousands of nationalists have been shot and exiled. I say Shqefni, before I went to prison the first time, I met with the Head of the American Mission in Tirana, he supplied me with what I needed, they even begged me to be taken to America, but I didn’t want to go They told me who came to your house and if you spoke against the government, but I won’t tell you why, the villagers have kissed my hand and I am doing bad things to them! They trust me for everything and I can’t bring them trouble. I, – says Shqefni, am the man of Christ and I will die in his name and these will not have it long, because they are temporary, only God is something else, permanent.
He is very afraid only of Prena Biba and the daughter of the owner of the house, because they know everything, who came to his house and talked long and hard, maybe at night, in Shqefni’s room, they would gather, listen to the radio, especially Italian and Shqefni made comments about how life is there, where the people are free to speak, because the political parties there are independent from the state.
Shqefni has some nephews in Tirana and he is very afraid that the investigator has oil on their backs, he asked them, because Shqefni has lived in their house continuously. One of the nephews is a taxi driver.
These, that is, the investigator asked me with whom you talked and what is your relationship with them. I don’t say anything to the Catholic priests that they want to exterminate us all, that they fear us, with words and these with violence, but they still fear us. They say we are strong. The Soviet Union changed its path after 40 years and started buying wheat in America and Denmark and lives on bread and salt. I have made these things clear to every person who came to my house, why I am a nationalist and Christ teaches us to tell the people the truth that God says and not the truth that lies. Memorie.al
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