TIRANA, August 21 – The Special Court against Corruption and Organized Crime (GJKKO) has ruled Fredi Beleri, the elected mayor of Himara, will remain in prison. He was arrested 3 months ago under suspicion of electoral corruption by buying and selling votes. Beleri has rejected the accusations as politically motivated.
His arrest has provoked tensions in relations between Albania and Greece. The Albanian government has stated that the case is in the hands of justice, and has nothing to do with the fact that Beleri belongs to the Greek minority.
The Special Court rejected again on Monday the repeated requests to change the security measure, to enable the swearing in and taking office as mayor, as well as the invalidity of acts by his representatives, who have claimed a political ban of their client.
Beleri was arrested two days before the local elections at midnight on May 12 in his bar in Himare, where he was in the presence of other people, and where the police reported that they caught him red-handed trying to buy votes from some citizens for him to win his mandate.
The event has provoked tensions between Albania and Greece, said VOA in an article published on Monday, stressing that a series of officials of the Greek parliament and government have asked the Albanian authorities to release Beleri to take the oath of office, mentioning that this issue will influence the relations between the two countries and Albania’s progress towards the European Union.
Rama has expressed surprise at how a foreign country demands the release of an Albanian citizen of Greek nationality accused by SPAK of buying and selling votes. According to VOA’s report, during the last decade, Albania has followed the approach defined by the Rama government as “Zero problems with neighbors”, while Greece says that Tirana should fulfill standards of the EU which Tirana is trying to join. /argumentum.al
