On July 17, 1954, nearly a month after the underground passage planned for the escape of several prisoners from Camp No. 4 in Tirana was discovered, those arrested appeared before the Supreme Military Court to hear the verdict. Former political prisoner Kolë Verri testified about the sentences handed down that day.
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Kolë Pepa, also known as Kolë Verri, was among those detained in June 1954 for digging the escape tunnel at Camp No. 4 in Tirana.
He had first been arrested on July 31, 1953. The Tirana Military Court had sentenced him to 25 years in prison for agitation and propaganda. Less than a year later, he was tried again alongside a group of prisoners accused of digging a tunnel to escape from Camp No. 4, which was located near the “leaders’ Bllok” in Tirana.
Kolë Verri’s account was included by Fatbardha Saraçi Mulleti in the book “Dhimbje 5.” According to his testimony, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the escape attempt as a member of a 20-person group.
The Supreme Military Court sentenced seven members of the group to death, while the others received prison terms ranging from 20 to 25 years.
Of the seven people sentenced to death, Nasuf Gjilaj, Niko Mali and Besim Latifi were spared. Isuf Agolli, Zyhdi Mancaku, Mark Zefi and Abdullah Bajrami were executed by firing squad.
Ali Çollaku, Xhemal Suta, Qani Mulita, Haki Kasa and Kolë Pepa (Verri) were each sentenced to 20 years in prison and deprived of their civil rights for five years.
Emin Bakalli, Xhemal Limani, Hazis Xhika and Abdyl Kërluku each received 25-year prison sentences.
Haki Zeqiri and Feim Ymeri were each sentenced to five years in prison for illegally crossing the Albanian state border. These terms were added to the sentences they had previously received.
They were all part of the group that had attempted to break through the perimeter of Camp No. 4 in Tirana via an underground tunnel.
The Judicial Council of the Supreme Court’s Military Chamber was chaired by Major Mustaf Qilimi. Its other members were Major Leni Dimoshi and Major Faik Minarolli, while Lieutenant Murat Qazimi served as chief secretary. Nexhip Labinoti and Petrit Starova were state-appointed lawyers.
According to Kolë Verri, the defendants were not allowed to request defense counsel because the aim was to conclude the proceedings against the group as quickly as possible. He links this claim to the fact that all formalities were completed within a single day. Ultimately, seven people were sentenced to death, while another twelve received prison terms of five, fifteen, twenty and twenty-five years. Their sentences began from the date of the trial in 1954.
In his testimony, Verri describes communist trials as mere formalities, saying that the punishments were determined by Interior Ministry officers as soon as the investigation ended.
Following the killing of the four condemned prisoners, which he describes as barbaric and inhumane, the other members of the group were sent to the cells of Burrel Prison. Under the rules in force at the time, before prisoners arrived from various districts across the country, the cells were emptied and the newcomers were placed in them. They remained there until other prisoners arrived from prisons around the country.
The same practice was followed with Verri’s group, with two people placed in each cell. He recalled that the treatment at Burrel Prison differed from that in other prisons.
The interior was lit with kerosene lamps, which were kept burning throughout the night in both the rooms and the corridors. Water for the prisoners was drawn from an unlined well dug specifically in the middle of the courtyard. The same water was used for drinking, washing clothes and in the kitchen, which was located in an inner corner of the courtyard.
Kolë Verri spent two years in Burrel. The younger prisoners were then gradually dispersed among the country’s numerous labor camps, where they were put to work in mines, land reclamation projects and construction.
The testimony was taken from the book “Dhimbje 5—The Ordeal of Children in Communist Concentration Camps,” written by Fatbardha Saraçi Mulleti and published by Fiorentia in Shkodër in 2023.
The main photograph shows the tunnel entrance and was published by researcher Kastriot Dervishi.
