Fredi Beleri, the imprisoned mayor-elect of the southern Albanian coastal city of Himare, was announced as one of the candidates of Greece’s ruling party, New Democracy (ND), for the upcoming European Parliament election in June.
The announcement is seen as a direct manifestation of official continuing Greece’s displeasure with the arrest and subsequent conviction of Beleri by a special anti-corruption court in Tirana on what the latter and his attorneys have charged are trumped up vote-buying charges.
The ethnic Greek politician was kept jailed before and during his trial and thereby prevented from taking the oath of office for the municipality, which hosts a sizable ethnic Greek minority in the Adriatic country, drawing Athens’ ire and accusations of a “sham trial” aimed to keep him out of the town hall.
Beleri has on several occasions referred to a miscarriage of justice and a judicial conspiracy orchestrated by Albanian PM Edi Rama himself, part of efforts to give land developers the upper hand over local property holders along the so-called “Albanian Riviera” in the country’s southwest coastal zone.
His name was announced on Monday afternoon during a presentation of center-right ND’s candidates.
