Fredi Beleris, an ethnic Greek who won local elections in Albania but was arrested on charges of vote-buying, has been granted a five-day leave from prison to attend the opening session of the new European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Beleris must maintain regular contact with law enforcement authorities and will be required to return to prison afterwards to complete his two-year sentence.
“Following his request, prisoner Beleri has been authorised to travel to Strasbourg from July 15 to 20 to take part in the sessions of the European Parliament”, Albanian prison administration spokeswoman Fernada Cenko said in a statement.
“The detainee must return to serve his sentence in Fieri prion,” she added.
This is not https://t.co/RLvdUaKrXs in Albania.Political prisoner Mr. Fredis Beleris just elected MEP with E.P.P. ( Nea Dimokratia) before Tirana's Court.Jailed already for 13 months for being elected Himara's Mayor( Ethnic Greek Minority). pic.twitter.com/P5qsk6TRAl
— Αλέξανδρος Μαλλιάς (@AlexMallias) June 14, 2024
In Strasbourg, Beleris will be sworn in and participate in the first formal decisions and procedures set for July 16-19. He will be at the inaugural plenary session of the European Parliament and take part in the votes for the presidents of the EP and the European Commission.
He had already been allowed to participate in an online meeting of Greek MEPs at the initiative of the Greek Permanent Representation in Brussels.
Beleris is serving a two-year sentence for electoral corruption in the local May 2023 mayoral election in Himara, Southern Albania.
He was arrested two days before the May 2023 municipal ballot, accused of offering 40,000 leks (€400) in exchange for eight votes and thus was never sworn in.
Because he is part of the ethnic Greek minority in the region and holds dual Greek and Albanian citizenship, the affair became part of a diplomatic row between Greece and Albania. Greece choose to side with Beleris, saying it had doubts “regarding the impartiality of the legal proceedings”.
In March, the Greek foreign affairs ministry denounced his two-year sentence as “clearly disproportionate to the nature and severity of the alleged offence”.
The country has called for Beleris’ immediate release and for him to be allowed to assume his mayoral duties, as mandated by his electoral victory in 2023.
Athens also warned that the case could impact Albania’s European Union accession efforts.
Greece’s New Democracy party decided to include Beleris as a candidate on its election list for the EP vote in June, where he won his seat.
Some fresh Members of the European Parliament breathed sighs of relief after being elected with at least three of them seeing their ongoing prosecutions halted. https://t.co/0Or83iN6nJ
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) June 13, 2024
