The Last Artist Hanged by Albania’s Communists: A Dissident Poet

Nine months earlier, in November 1987, he put pen to paper and wrote some verses for a poem called 'Freedom or Death'.

"Let the enemy enjoy, let the fool laugh/Freedom is calling me, death does not shake me," say the final lines of the poem.

Nela, then 54, was hanged in the street of Kukes city centre in the early morning of August 10, 1988 after the court rejected an appeal against the death sentence. He was the last poet to be executed in Communist Albania.

Havzi Nela`s poems. Photo courtesy: Petrit Palushi

'I have my own opinions'

Petrit Palushaj, a researcher from Kukes, has spent years researching Nela and described him as "an open opponent of the Communist regime".

A teacher and a poet, Nela was born on February 20, 1934, in the village of Kollovoz in the Kukes region.

On April 26, 1967, together with his wife Lavdie, he crossed the border into Kosovo, which was part of Yugoslavia at the time, but they were arrested by Yugoslav soldiers and imprisoned in the town of Prizren.

On May 6, 1967, the Yugoslavs returned them to the Morina border crossing as part of an exchange with several Kosovo Albanians who the Albanian government handed over to the Yugoslav authorities.

Under communism in Albania, when the borders were closed to the majority of people, illegal border crossing was one of the most serious crimes and was considered to be treason and punished severely.

On May 22, 1967, Nela was sentenced to 15 years in prison for illegal border crossing and all his property was confiscated. His wife was sentenced to ten years in prison, but she only served two years.

Nela was convicted for a second time on August 8, 1975, while he was still serving his first...