A wealthy family fled to Canada after a massacre at their villa. Albania blamed their deaths

Musa Protoduari's family is one of Albania's richest and most prominent families. There was a time. His wife's grandfather was one of the signers of the 1912 Declaration of Independence from the Ottoman Empire and was Prime Minister in the 1920s.

But after World War II, when the communist regime made Albania a satellite state of the Soviet Union, the family's property was confiscated and they declared official displeasure. bought.

Musa, now 76, became a construction engineer. His wife, Fatbardha, maintained a family tradition of political activism. Musa was arrested eight times by the Communist government.

With the fall of the Iron Curtain and the dissolution of the Soviet bloc in the 1990s, their fortunes rose again. their property was restored. Musa built a large villa for his family on the main square of Uravaj Glore in his hometown.

Chaos and violence took hold as Albania struggled to build a democratic state, amid a financial scandal involving the ruling party backed by Protoduaris. Protests and political rallies turned into gunfights and civil wars as police and soldiers deserted and looted armories.

Ahead of new elections, Edmund, one of Musa's sons, ran for anti-Communist MP, but was shot twice. Balcony of the family villa.

Shortly thereafter, the villa came under a rocket attack during the night.

"It was a mess," Musa's youngest son, his Gentjan Protoduari, said in an interview. "There was attack after attack. It was complete chaos. There was no government, no police."

We are forever grateful to Canada

Musa hired a villa guard and the family fled to another city.

Then there was a massacre on the doorstep.

On June 17, 1997, the battle at the Protoduaris villa between armed guards and armed political opponents was astonishing. There were tanks on one side and armored vehicles on the other.

Four police officers and at least one of his civilians were killed and 12 wounded when the smoke cleared. An Albanian newspaper recently called it "one of the worst massacres the country has known."

The attack, shootout, and reaction to it forced Musa Protoduari and six of his family members to leave Albania and seek asylum in Canada, which unfolded behind closed doors for more than 12 years. A legal battle ignited.

That battle ended in the family's favor this week.

"We are very relieved," family spokesman Genjan said Thursday from his home in Montreal.

"Despite everything that has happened over the years, I am eternally grateful that Canada opened its doors because they really saved our lives. We are not talking about prosecution, we are talking about death, persecution of family members.”

Official Albanian Trial Records depicts a different situation. It holds the family responsible for the massacre. Musa and his eldest son, Shkelqim Protoduari, 51, were convicted in absentia of creating and joining an armed gang and of Musa's intentional killing by police. received. Musa was sentenced to life imprisonment and Shkelqim to his 13 years.

Some Albanian media accounts of him portray Musa as a gangster or leader of an armed rebellion. Protoduaris says this is a political smear campaign.

They say they were unable to seek evidence because they were not present at the trial and had no attorney to represent them. Since the incident, an Albanian prosecutor has been indicted for international cocaine smuggling and the presiding judge has been dismissed for his contacts with organized crime, according to court documents.

Court records stated that Canada had filed a petition on the grounds that "the evidence presented did not meet Canadian legal requirements." refused to extradite them to Albania, but Ottawa still moved to revoke their refugee status.

There is no dispute that the family fled Albania in 1999 by truck to Spain, then flew to the United States and then to Canada.

"We just wanted to get out. Our lives were in danger, so that was the main goal," Genjan said. "The smugglers we contacted at the time said that was the route they were taking and recommending. At the time, we didn't know much about Canada." It was accepted in 1999 under expedited procedures.

In 2011, Ottawa tried to revoke his refugee status, claiming his family was hiding facts about the massacre.

"There was no information to withhold and no reason to withhold," he said Gentjan. "We met with the (immigration) officers and explained everything. We took everything into account and opened our hearts to the Canadian government."

Filed in court Their asylum applications show that they said "yes" when asked if they were wanted by their country's police or military, referring to the "Ura Vajiglole massacre". They left details for oral hearings, he said.

However, the government did not make or keep records of what was said at the public hearings.

The refugee problem continued for years. The family lost his first lawsuit in 2014, but won a new hearing appeal. It took six years to call that hearing, and the family won. The Minister of Public Security subsequently appealed the decision to the Federal Court.

Federal Court Judge Yvan Roy said there was no evidence that family information was misleading or concealed, and the government had "insufficient records." and said it was holding a "less than stellar" case.

Roy said that the asylum seeker and adjudicator, upon seeing the declaration that the applicant was wanted by the police in connection with the massacre, held a one-hour hearing and asked no questions about it. said it was unlikely.

We just wanted to get out.

Roy also criticized Albanian beliefs, as our lives were in danger.

"There was no direct liability established by the sentencing. These crimes would have been committed by others who were at the villa," Roy wrote, and the sentencing was that Protoduari was there. You have not provided proof that you were in It details the tragedy but does not outline the guilt factor.

"My father is nothing like they portray," Genjan said.

"He was a businessman. Our main hope was that the rule of law would be preserved. My father is a construction engineer. He had nothing to do with guns, gangs, etc.

"We read about ourselves in the newspapers and I was lost in the articles 'Who Are They Talking About?' They portray us as woodlanders, gangsters and mobsters.

"With this , our story in Canada is over," Genjan said.

The family is still appealing the conviction in Albania. They also appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.

"It's an emotional roller coaster," he said. “For 23 years I was drained both mentally and financially.”

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