photographed in his house near Tirana

Born on April 27, 1951, in Tirana, Fatos Lubonja was arrested on July 25, 1974, one year after his father, the former director of Albanian Radio Television, was convicted as an “enemy of the people.” At the time of his arrest, Fatos was 23 years old, a university student, and the father of two young daughters. He was charged with “agitation and propaganda” based on rebellious diary entries he had written at the age of 19.

Initially sentenced to 7 years in the Spaç prison camp, Fatos frequently refused forced labor in the mines, leading to severe beatings and prolonged confinement in isolation cells. In 1978, he received an additional 16-year sentence, along with other prisoners, based on fabricated accusations of being a member of an “anti-socialist organization.” Fatos Lubonja was released on March 17, 1991, under a pardon decree, after serving nearly 17 years in some of the most notorious prisons and camps, including Ballsh, Qafë-Bari, Burrel, and Spaç. During his imprisonment, he wrote a diary and a novel on cigarette papers.

Lubonja is one of the few intellectuals who has publicly called for a serious reckoning with Albania’s communist dictatorship. He has described his experiences under the regime in his books Ridënimi (The Re-Sentencing, 1997), Në vitin e shtatëmbëdhjetë: Ditar Burgu 1990–1991 (In the Seventeenth Year: Prison Diary 1990–1991, 1994), and Jetë Burgu (Prison Life, 2021).