XXXIX. In memory of an innocent Mafia victim
XXXIX. In memory of an innocent Mafia victim
Waiting for the XXVI Mafia Victims Remembrance and Commitment Day, promoted by Libera Foundation, we recall the story of Hyso Telharaj, a 22-year-old Albanian boy killed by organized crime in Apulia
Hi,
welcome back to BarBalkans, the Italian newsletter whose aim is to give a voice to the Western Balkans’ stories, on the 30th anniversary of the Yugoslav Wars.
It is the eve of March 21.
The first day of spring. The Mafia Victims Remembrance and Commitment Day.
BarBalkans joins the read out of the list of 1,031 names of Mafias innocent victims by Libera Foundation and dedicates this stop to the memory of one of them.
His name was Hyso Telharaj.
A 22-year-old Albanian young man, murdered in Apulia (Southern Italy) because he refused to bow his head to the abuses of caporalato, the illegal employment system of agricultural workers for very little pays.
This flower - the symbol of rebirth - is for Hyso.
A determined boy
Hyso Telharaj was born in 1977 in a small town near Vlora, Albania. His family was composed of six brothers and sisters, raised by a mother who also had to work and look after her husband, who was confined to bed because of a serious accident.
Hyso was good at school, he learnt fast and read a lot. He grew up with a strong sense of responsibility: at the age of 13 he decided to leave for Greece to earn a salary as an apprentice mason and help his mother to support the family.
The boy was well liked by his colleagues and also by his boss, who let him stay at his home. At work, he made great strides: he learnt not only how to construct buildings, but also how to design them.
For years he sent his savings to Albania to support his family. But in 1999, after having built the new house for his parents, he decided to go back to school.
He wanted to be a surveyor.
Those were difficult times for Albania. When the dictatorship collapsed, the absence of the State pushed an entire people to flee, to look for a new life elsewhere. The Italian coasts were the destination of that flight.
Hyso decided to follow the example of many other Albanians. He left to Italy with his 17-year-old cousin, Simon Tragaj, but he did not tell his family how they did it. Surely on one of the many rubber dinghy.
Once he disembarked on the coast of Apulia, Hyso wanted to save money to register for school.
He began to work on tomato harvest between Cerignola and Borgo Incoronata.
But he did not know that the life of the Apulian agricultural workers is marked by strict rules and that he was not allowed to escape the caporalato control system.
That he was not free to choose for himself.
Hyso had already worked for many years. He did not agree to give in to the blackmail of the gangmasters and he refused to hand over part of his earnings.
Certainly he did not realize that his gesture was an act of extreme rebellion, because the Mafia will never allow anyone to challenge those in power.
Hyso had been in Italy for a few months. His comrades warned him that the Mafia people were looking for him. They suggested him to flee, but he stayed.
One evening, four people - a Polish woman and three armed Albanian men - arrived aboard a car driven by Addolorato Pompeo Todisco, an agricultural entrepreneur from Orta Nova.
The entrepreneur and the woman stayed in the car. Vrapi Edmond, Celhaka Kuitim and Vrapi Lua entered the farmhouse where Hyso and his cousin Simon were living.
The two boys were beaten and nine shots were fired. Simon was kneecapped, Hyso died the same day for the wounds.
It was September 8, 1999.
The news arrived in Albania. Hyso’s older brother, Ayet Telharaj, was informed, but he did not say anything to anyone for 20 days. He did not want to heartbreak his parents and sisters before the dead body arrived.
Between September 25 and 26, Hyso corpse was brought back to the village near Vlora.
The boy was buried in his land and for years no one in the family talked about what happened in Italy.
Remembrance and commitment
13 years went by.
In 2012 Ajada, a girl of Albanian origin, participated in a Libera summer camp in Mesagne (Brindisi), in a villa confiscated from the Sacra Corona Unita (a Mafia-type criminal organization from Apulia).
One day, a volunteer told the story of Hyso. Ajada was impressed. She wanted people in Albania to know that the boy’s memory was still alive thanks to the Italian anti-Mafia organization.
At the end of the summer camp, Ajada brought with her a bottle of wine “Hiso Telaray” (at the time, the correct spelling was not known, because of the absence of documents and testimonies). Ajada wanted to trace Hyso’s family and bring them the bottle.
Giving back a name to victims restores their humanity and uniqueness.
Hyso’s name is pronounced every year on the Mafia Victims Remembrance and Commitment Day. Hyso’s name was chosen to title the first Apulian cooperative founded by Libera Terra, and the first wine produced from the vineyards that once belonged to the Mafia. Libera’s local branch in Cerignola is dedicated to Hyso.
But for many years Hyso had a name in Italy, but not a face.
It took Ajada 4 years to be able to trace his family. In 2016 she got in touch with Polikseni Telharaj, one of Hyso’s sisters, and she sent her a long letter.
In the summer she went to Albania to meet the whole family. Thanks to the strength of the testimony and of the bottle of wine, she convinced them to undertake the trip to Italy.
In the autumn of 2016, Hyso’s family brought some of his pictures and his passport to Apulia, directly delivered by Ayet Telharaj to Daniela Marcone, Libera vice-president.
Under the olive trees confiscated from the Cerignola Mafia, Hyso “regained” his face.
On the same days (November 4, 2016), a new Italian law tackling forms of severe labour exploitation in agriculture entered into force.
Justice never stops
If we rewind the tape at the night of the murder, on November 24, 1999, all five perpetrators received a custodial sentence for serious bodily harm and first-degree murder.
On November 24, 2009, the Court of Foggia sentenced three Albanians to 21 years in prison, while Todisco to 14 years for complicity to murder.
On February 8, 2011, the Court of Bari confirmed the convictions for the perpetrators on appeal, while the charge for the Apulian entrepreneur was downgraded as aiding and abetting the murder, and later prescribed.
However, Luan Vrapi, accused and convicted for the crime, was able to flee to Albania.
Thanks to the constant cooperation between the Italian and Albanian police forces, on July 9, 2020, the 47-year-old murderer was tracked down in Tirana by the International Police Cooperation Service and extradited to Italy.
This policing operation confirmed the synergy between Italy and Albania in the fight against organized crime, from drug trafficking to human trafficking. Also, it demonstrated that Hyso has never been forgotten, as Ludovico Vaccaro, prosecutor of Foggia, pointed out:
«This is the concreteness of justice. Condemning those responsible for the murder, we had done our duty, but we did not forget what happened next. This event and many other policing operations against entrepreneurs and gangmasters confirm that our territory is living in a positive moment in the fight against the hateful phenomenon of exploitation, thanks to the great commitment of the police and judiciary».
Pit stop. Sittin’ at the BarBalkans
We have reached the end of this piece of road in company of Hyso Telharaj, an innocent Mafia victim.
A young man who arrived in Italy with the desire to build a future for himself, but instead he paid his NO to abuses and violence of the organized crime with his life.
However - even if he will never know - he also found a community that keeps his memory alive and that named after his name the lands that were once owned by the bosses of the Sacra Corona Unita.
Hiso Telaray is the name of Cooperativa Sociale Terre di Puglia wine business, which recovers assets confiscated from organized crime in Apulia.
The cooperative manages 25 hectares of vineyards in the province of Brindisi, in the municipalities of Mesagne, Torchiarolo and San Pietro Vernotico.
The main grape is Negroamaro, used for elegant wines. A grape that gets justice to the native Salento variety and also to Hyso’s story, thanks to the red and rosé wines dedicated to him.
These labels hold within their names the remembrance of innocent Mafia victims and the commitment of anti-Mafia struggle.
Let’s continue the BarBalkans journey. We’ll meet again in a week, for the 40th stop.
A big hug and have a good journey!
«By carrying on his name, Hyso got back to life, though not physically. Today, Italy is the country of his second rebirth, since he will never be forgotten here.
In recent years, I have often imagined the family and the house that Hyso had always desired and could not build for himself. I have missed that house and this thought haunted me for 17 years.
Now, I have found that house, in the land that bears his name. Here, it is like I can finally breathe, as if I found a piece of him. It seems to me that Hyso is looking at me from above, even though he cannot speak to me.
We will be grateful to all of you for a lifetime for making his name immortal».
Polikseni Telharaj
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