Sigurimi

The Directorate of State Security (Albanian: Drejtoria e Sigurimit të Shtetit), commonly known as the Sigurimi (lit.'Security'), was the state security, intelligence and secret police service of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania. It operated as part of the communist system from the end of the Second World War until 1991, when Albania began dismantling its one-party state.

Although formally charged with protecting state security, the Sigurimi functioned in practice as the political police of the Party of Labour of Albania. It monitored society, identified and pursued people labelled as "enemies" of the regime, investigated political offences, maintained informant networks, censored information, protected the communist leadership and collected foreign intelligence. The Authority for Information on Former State Security Documents has described the State Security as a mechanism of "terror, surveillance and repression" during Albania's communist dictatorship.

The Sigurimi is central to Albania's post-communist debates about transitional justice, lustration and access to secret-police files. After years of political dispute, Law No. 45/2015 created a legal framework for access to former State Security documents and established the AIDSSH, which began functioning in 2016–2017.