ALBANIA: NEXHMIJE HOXHA ,WIFE OF FORMER DICTATOR, RELEASED FROM JAIL AFTER SERVING FIVE YEARS FOR EMBEZZLING STATE CASH

Record ID: 566034

  • Title: ALBANIA: NEXHMIJE HOXHA ,WIFE OF FORMER DICTATOR, RELEASED FROM JAIL AFTER SERVING FIVE YEARS FOR EMBEZZLING STATE CASH
  • Date: 10th January 1997
  • Summary: TIRANA, ALBANIA (JANUARY 10, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV EXTERIOR TIRANA'S WOMEN'S PRISON WITH TWO SONS AND NEPHEW ,OF STALINIST DICTATOR ENVER HOXHA, WAITING OUTSIDE 0.06 2. SCU PRISON SIGN 0.08 3. SMV GUARD 0.12 4. SLV NEXHMIJE HOXHA WALKS OUT OF PRISON AND IS GREETED BY NEPHEW AND TWO SONS 0.44 5. SLV WOMEN WAITING IN DOORWAY OF PRISON 0.46 6. SMV/MV NEXHMIJE HOXHA GETS INTO CAR; SITTING IN CAR LEAVES IN CAR DRIVEN BY HER ELDER SON ILIR WHO WAVES AS THEY LEAVE 1.11 7. SMV NEXHMIJE HOXHA IN HER SON'S HOUSE WITH FAMILY 1.17 8. SCU BOOKS AND PHOTOGRAPH OF NEXHMIJE HOXHA'S ENGAGEMENT TO LATE HUSBAND ENVER HOXHA/ PHOTOGRAPH OF THE TWO BY EXCLUSIVE LAKESIDE RESORT (3 SHOTS) 1.27 9. SMV NEXHMIJE HOXHA SITTING WITH FAMILY BY HER SIDE 1.35 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 25th January 1997 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TIRANA, ALBANIA
  • City:
  • Country: Albania
  • Reuters ID: LVA1B6CQ65762GS4CAQFBPFRH1CS
  • Story Text: - INTRO: The widow of Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha has been released from jail after serving five years for embezzling state cash.

    Nexhmije Hoxha, widow of the Stalinist dictator, was released from prison on Friday (January 10) after being sent there in 1993 for embezzling money to fund her lavish lifestyle.

    She was arrested in December 1991 and sentenced to nine years in jail on charges of misappropriation of state funds and abuse of power.

    Her sentence was reduced three times on the orders of conservative President Sali Berisha and she won a further cut after a new penal code came into effect in 1995.

    Seventy-six year old Hoxha emerged from Tirana's top-security prison looking dignified and unscathed and said she was "very pleased to be among free people" but that she felt a mixture of emotion and anxiety.

    The former first lady was greeted by her sons and nephew. She was then driven in a second-hand car to her son's humble three-room home, a converted building on a former chicken farm in a grubby Tirana suburb.

    The once well-heeled widow, who used to be the second most powerful person in Albania, was happy for photographers to take her picture with the grandchildren she had missed for so long, but only after she had slipped into a fresh set of clothes.

    During Enver Hoxha's iron rule in Europe's poorest and most isolated state, his relatives held high-ranking posts and enjoyed privileges of which ordinary Albanians could only dream.

    Hoxha ruled for four decades until his death in April 1985.

    Religion, private property, travel abroad, and foreign books and films were strictly forbidden under his rule. A popular uprising toppled Albanian communism in December 1990.

    Nexhmije, born on February 8, 1921, to a Moslem Albanian family in present-day Macedonia, married Hoxha when she was 24. She was a founding member of the communist party and held key posts throughout its four decade-long rule.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register