Labëria

On Wednesday Greece filed a written statement with the Council of the European Union stating it will not support Albania's EU accession process as long as the case of the imprisoned ethnic Greek mayor elect of Himare, Fredi Beleri, remains unresolved.

Greece will not further support Albania's EU accession process if the latter does not free ethnic Greek Fredi Beleri, mayor-elect of Himare, it said on Wednesday.

Greece is adopting a firmer stance concerning the conditions for Albania's entry into the European Union over the case of Fredi Beleri, an ethnic Greek elected as the mayor of Himare in southern Albania during the municipal elections on May 14 though prevented from being sworn in due to an arrest on alleged vote-buying two days earlier.

The decision on the request by incarcerated ethnic Greek Fredi Beleri to be sworn as mayor of Himare in southern Albania will be made by the neighboring country's Special Court on December 4, "after six months of procrastination," he told Skai Radio in an interview on Tuesday.

The "rule of law does not function in Albania," the ethnic Greek mayor-elect of the Albanian city of Himare Fredi Beleri has said.

Beleri was detained in May on suspicion of voter fraud. All his appeals to be released in order to be sworn in as mayor have been turned down by the Albanian courts.

The European Commission's progress report on Greece's neighbor Albania, which opened accession negotiations with the EU in 2022, noted a determination to implement the required European reforms and some progress, but also urged Tirana to undertake further efforts regarding "freedom of expression, minority issues and property rights, as well as in key areas of the rule of law, such as the fight

Defense attorneys in the trial of ethnic Greek mayor-elect Fredi Beleri on vote-buying charges in Albania are highlighting what they call the different standards deployed by the Albanian judiciary.

Members of the ethnic Greek community allege charges against Beleri are linked to investments around the town of Himare, whose tourist development has been rapid in recent years. 

Fredi Beleri, the mayor-elect of Himare, in southern Albania, currently held in detention pending trial on corruption charges, has accused judicial authorities of intentionally delaying the case for political convenience.

The Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama gave an interview on Greek state media ERT broadcasted on Wednesday discussing Greek-Albanian relations, and the detention of the elected ethnic Greek mayor of the Albanian region Himare, Fredi Beleri. Beleri was arrested by Albanian police special forces over charges of vote buying.

Last Monday morning, I received a message from an unknown Albanian number that criticized a report I had written in last Sunday's Kathimerini on the imprisonment of Fredi Beleri, the ethnic Greek mayor-elect of the city of Himare in southern Albania, in which the Albanian prime minister is accused of involvement in his case.