Today we are bringing to your attention the former dictator's notes in an archival document from 1958 on the trial of Dom Engjëll Kovaç, in Fund 4, File 105, Box 2 — a report with remarks signed by Enver Hoxha.
In this document, Hoxha directly engages in the execution of the Catholic priest, according to a trap set by the State Security.
He seeks to use the trial for propaganda against the Catholic clergy, to prepare for subsequent attacks on all religious faiths in Albania — clear evidence of the instrumentalization of justice for ideological purposes and religious oppression.
Here is what E. Hoxha's note says about comrade Kadri:
"These should be brought to justice. In the Shkodra district and other Catholic districts, it should be made a matter of propaganda (see also the notes I have put in your proposals).
It is not appropriate for the press to give it wide publicity.
We can only place a brief announcement in the press that the trial of so-and-so, who killed so-and-so inside the church, took place (mention the reason, but not in detail).
Discuss this issue with comrade Mehmet and take action.”
(October 21, 1958)
Continuing, as he makes final corrections to the text, he writes;
"It's not necessary, I think the Supreme Court College should do it. Crimes of former clerics can be mentioned, but it's not immediate to develop a major process against the Catholic Church."
Dom Engjëll Kovaçi, a priest from Puka, was unjustly accused by the State Security of a murder committed in the village of Qelëz — a crime that, according to later evidence, was committed by the Security operatives themselves. Although there was clear evidence that the priest was in the village of Iballë on the day of the incident, the investigators tortured him to death and forcibly took a signature from him to use as “evidence.” The fabricated accusation was used by the regime to denigrate the Catholic clergy.
During the trial in Shkodra, his sister, Angje Kovaçi, publicly reacted against the judicial farce, calling on the people not to believe the false accusations. Angje Kovaçi testified after 1990 that the victim was killed after a quarrel between two brothers and that the Kovaçi family had nothing to do with the incident.
In a chilling interview given to writer Marçel Hila, after the 1990s, Angjelina Preka (Kovaçi), sister of the executed priest Dom Engjëll Pjetri Kovaçi, says that the Sigurimi accused him unfairly and that he was tortured into signing the "confession" prepared by investigators Ali Xhunga and Ilmi Sahiti.
In fact, the reason for his punishment was his refusal to sign the Statute of the Catholic Church, dictated by the communist regime. For this moral resistance, he was sentenced to death and shot in 1959. His body still remains missing.
