The Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Dendias, repeated the call to the Albanian authorities to release Fredi Beleri, the winner of the elections in the Municipality of Himara while threatening to put the issue on the EU agenda.
Albanians headed to the polls on Sunday to vote in 61 municipalities for mayors and local councillors. But in the municipality of Himare in the south of the country and home to a Greek minority community, trouble started on Friday.
Fredi Beleri, a Greek expatriate running for mayor under the banner of a Greek minority party aligned with an opposition coalition, was arrested on Friday on suspicion of vote buying. The police said he was to be charged with active corruption in elections, something Beleri denies.
Beleri won the vote although it is not yet known if he will take the mandate as he remains in prison.
Dendias said that he does not understand why Beleri is still in custody, as he threatened that this situation could seriously affect the relations between Albania and Greece.
“We are not putting pressure or shouting, we want friendship, but not at any price”, he said on Thursday.
Dendias stated that on Monday he will go to Brussels to participate in the Council of Foreign Ministers of the EU, where he will raise the issue of the arrest of the mayor of Himara.
“Since the matter is extremely serious, I will be in Brussels on Monday morning. There we have a lunch with the foreign ministers of the Western Balkans. The issue should be raised in the Council of Ministers. It is not possible not to settle. It is not common to detain a mayoral candidate 48 hours before an election and keep him in custody. Why is he kept? What is this element of his dangerousness that requires prolonged detention? These are big questions,” said Dendias.
According to evidence leaked to Albanian media, wiretapping revealed Beleri and his plan for buying local election votes. It is alleged a person provided him with a list of names of people who would vote for him if he gave them 5000 Lek (€45). He allegedly then promised to give the person passing him the list of names around €300.
The file states that the money was not handed over by Beleri but by a third person who met the intermediary in a bar in Himara, exchanging the money in the toilets.
Mitsotakis said on Sunday that the behaviour of the Albanian authorities was at the expense of EU unity and said that if it continues, it will not only impact bilateral relations but Albania’s EU aspirations.
“I will not accept such behaviour at the expense of the Greeks. It is unacceptable and unimaginable what happened to Fredi Beleri,” he said.
The Greek premier added, “Albania should know very well that if such a policy continues, it will affect our bilateral relations and its path towards the EU,” he added.
On the day of arrest, Mitsotakis said he had complained to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen which he said were based on “non-existent charges.”
Rama responded to the outrage with a tweet that the case is a “test for justice.”
The incident comes just months after Mitsotakis cancelled a trip to Himare the day before the EU-Western Balkan summit in Tirana after Rama told EURACTIV in an interview that Greece cheated on its EU accession process.
The comments soon went viral across Greece, and the Albanian prime minister addressed the issue during a bilateral meeting at the EU-Western Balkan Summit in Tirana.
It also takes place in the context of a protracted disagreement on maritime borders that is set to be decided by an international tribunal.
In an interview with EURACTIV in December 2022, Berisha – considered closer to Athens – revealed that Ankara, a long-time foe of Athens, made a “really strong intervention” to block a maritime border agreement between Albania and Greece in 2009.
Greece has also threatened to withdraw support for Albania’s EU membership over the issue of Chameria.
Chams, inhabitants of Chameria, which Greece refers to as Epirus, were forcibly removed by Greece between 1913 and up until 27 June 1944. Albania reports that up to 30,000 Cham Albanians were forcibly removed from Greece, hundreds were massacred, and around 2400 died on their way to Albania.
In May 2022, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias suggested that Albania pursuing the Cham issue could result in problems with its EU accession hopes.
(Alice Taylor | Exit.al)
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