Ethnic Greek politician Fredi Beleris has been pelted with yogurt and eggs by unknown assailants outside Albania’s parliament in Tirana.
Beleris, who has been elected as a Member of the European Parliament on behalf of governing New Democracy party, was in the Albanian capital as part of a delegation from the European Parliament to assess Albania’s progress towards European Union membership.
The MEP is a member of the Delegation to the EU-Albania Stabilization and Association Parliamentary Committee.
Earlier, it was announced that Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama would not participate in meetings with the delegation, meaning this expected first face-to-face encounter with Beleris will not occur.
Beleris was released from prison in September
In September, Beleris was released from 16 months imprisonment after being convicted of vote-buying in a municipal election.
Beleris was elected mayor of the city of Himara in Albania in the 2023 local elections, an office he did not take after being arrested a few days earlier for vote-buying.
His arrest mobilized both the Greek community in Albania and the Greek government, which accused the Albanian authorities of attempting to hinder the political activities of Albania’s Greek minority.
In the trial that followed, he was sentenced to two years in prison; as a result of the conviction, Albania’s Central Electoral Commission declared Beleris’ mandate invalid and decided to hold new elections.
Beleris, who protests his innocence, has vowed to continue his legal battle through all levels of the Albanian justice system and at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
In a statement following the decision of the Albanian court, Beleris said that he would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights for what he described as the Albanian government’s coup d’état against him in Himara.
“After 16 months of continuous detention, I am now free and proud, but certainly not happy. Because the rule of law and democracy in Albania were not restored, the institutions did not work, justice was not delivered.
“Today’s decision is only a drop in the ocean of justice. My fight now begins”, he said and added “one day, I will be among my brothers in Himara. That’s where my adventure started and I think it’s only right to be there.”
Greece welcomed the release of Beleris
The spokesperson for the Greek government, Pavlos Marinakis, described the release “as a positive development.”
However, as pointed out “this does not mean that we will forget what happened in the previous 16 months and its gravity.”
“In the person of Fredi Beleris, the government sees the ethnic minority of Albania. Now the Greek minority has a representative in the European Parliament who will speak for sacred human rights,” he added.
