Fredi Beleri

Greece's Foreign Ministry condemned Albania's decision to declare invalid the mandate of ethnic Greek Fredi Beleri as mayor of the the southern Albanian region of Himare, calling it a "pre-ordained outcome" fraught with legal issues. 

Albania's Central Electoral Commission revoked the mandate of Fredi Beleri, the ethnic Greek mayor-elect of Himare, on Friday. Beleri appeared at the hearing accompanied by a heavy police presence.

Chief Commissioner Ilirjan Celibashi stated that an appeal against the decision, effective immediately, can be filed within 30 days.

An Albanian prison cell wouldn't rank high among choice spots to run a successful campaign for election to the European Parliament.

The Court of Appeal of Tirana on Tuesday upheld the two-year jail sentence issued by the court of first instance against Fredi Beleri, the elected ethnic Greek mayor of Himare in southern Albania, and now MEP for ruling New Democracy.

The ruling means Beleri won't be able to attend the first plenary session of the European Parliament from July 16 to 19 in Strasbourg.

Greece's Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Wednesday regarding an Albanian court's decision to reject an appeal by Fredi Beleri, an ethnic Greek elected mayor of Himara and more recently in the European Parliament, who will have to remain in prison until October.

A court of appeals in Tirana on Tuesday rejected an appeal by Fredi Beleri, the mayor-elect of the ethnic Greek city of Himare and an elected MEP for Greece, who ran as a New Democracy candidate in this month's European Parliament election.

Fredi Beleri, the mayor-elect of the predominantly ethnic Greek city of Himare in southern Albania and elected MEP, is due on Tuesday to hear the verdict of his appeal against a conviction for vote-buying in last year's local polls.

It was seen as no surprise in Greece that the final decision on the appeal of jailed ethnic Greek mayor Fredi Beleri was deferred on Friday to the Special Court of Appeal of Tirana later this month, namely on June 25. 

A special appeals court in Albania has announced that it will made a final decision on June 25 in the case of jailed ethnic Greek politician Fredi Beleri, who was elected to the European Parliament as a candidate in Greece for the ruling New Democracy party.

Beleri is appealing a conviction on charges of vote-buying in a local mayoral election a year before.

When ethnic Greek politician Fredi Beleri was voted into the European Parliament on Sunday while jailed in Albania, supporters in his Albanian hometown lit flares and fireworks in celebration.