Albania mourns as King Zog's son dies

Albania has declared a day of mourning tomorrow (Saturday) after the son of the last king of Albania died on Wednesday aged 72.

Crown Prince Leka Zogu, son of King Zog I, was the pretender to the Albanian throne who returned to the country in 2002 after 63 years in exile.

He was only two days old when his family left the capital Tirana after the Italian invasion on April 7, 1939.

In his obituary in The Times the paper said he had spent most of his life in England, Egypt, Spain, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa, but he had made two attempts to return home in 1993 and 1997.

On the first occasion he wasn’t allowed in because his passport was declared invalid as he had listed his profession as King.

On the second occasion a referendum was held over the restoration of the monarchy, which was rejected by a two thirds majority, although Leka believed the vote had been rigged and this led to civil unrest.

Leka, pictured below, returned to South Africa where he dealt in commodities. An Albanian court sentenced him in his absence to three years’ imprisonment for sedition, but in March 2002 he was pardoned and returned to live privately in Tirana where he died on November 30.

As mentioned in my book, God’s Secret Listener, published by Lion/Hudson/Monarch, a young tribal leader, Ahmet Zogu, returned from exile in Yugoslavia in 1924 to lead his country and was later crowned King Zog after the 1921 Conference of Ambassadors in Paris  had recognised Albania as an independent sovereign state.

But when in 1939 the king refused to allow the Italian Government to use the Albanian ports for military purposes Mussolini’s forces invaded and ended the monarchy in Tirana.

Leka lived at the Ritz Hotel in London for a time before being educated at Parmoor House and at English schools in Egypt, then becoming a cadet at Sandhurst in the mid-1950s, where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant.

In 1976 he married Susan Barbara Cullen-Ward, a teacher, who was the daughter of an Australian sheep farmer and the couple stayed together until she died in 2004.

Three years later in 1979 he was expelled from Spain accused of trying to overthrow the Albanian Communist government of Enver Hoxha.

There were rumours, which he denied, that he was an arms dealer and it is believed he was imprisoned in Thailand on gun-running charges.

However, he was arrested in February 1999 in South Africa of unlawfully possessing arms, but the charges were later withdrawn.

It was said throughout his life Leka always feared being assassinated by the Albanian secret police.

His ‘Royal Minister of Court’ once famously said of the Prince: “From the moment he was born there was a gun under his pillow, and he has worn it all his life.”

When his father, King Zog, died in 1961 Leka was regarded by Albanian monarchists as the new king, but he never took power.

However, 72 members of the Albanian Parliament voted to ask the royal family to return in 2002.

Although he was backed by the Legality party, which formed a collation with other parties, Leka would not take part in politics.

He said: “I am above all political parties, even my own.”

Leka is survived by his son Leka Anwar Zog Reza Baudouin Msiziwe, who is an official at the Albanian Interior Ministry.