Fredi Beleri

Albanian prosecutors said Saturday they ordered the arrest of the mayor of a seaside tourist town in the country's south on corruption charges.

Things are judged by results, and in the case of Fredi Beleri, things have not gone at all well. The mayor-elect of the predominantly ethnic Greek town of Himare in southern Albania is to remain in prison until September 12, 2024. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama's goal is for the appeal trial to be finished by September too, so that Beleri can be convicted once and for all and disqualified.

Tirana's handling of the case of Fredi Beleri, the ethnic Greek elected mayor of Himare in southern Albania, has adversely impacted bilateral relations with Greece, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told Skai TV in an interview on Tuesday.

Greek diplomacy clearly did not handle the Fredi Beleri case well. Its contradictory messages and moves didn't help. With such matters, it is important to decide on the approach from the onset.

This week an Albanian court sentenced Fredi Beleri, the imprisoned mayor-elect of Himare, to 2 years in prison. Beleri slammed the trial and the court's decision as a "sham". This case is about much more than one individual, however, touching on deeper issues in Greek-Albanian relations.

Following the Tuesday conviction of ethnic Greek mayor Fredi Beleri in Albania over alleged vote-buying, sources from within the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday expressed their concern over the rule of law in Albania and the objectivity of its justice system.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama's choice to cut ties with Athens was reflected by Tuesday's ruling of the Special Anti-Corruption Court in Albania sentencing the elected ethnic Greek mayor of Himare, a municipality in southern Albanis, Fredi Beleri, in the first instance, to two years in prison on charges of vote buying.

A mayor from Albania's Greek minority who was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday for buying votes, described the judicial proceedings as a "sham trial."

An Albanian court on Tuesday convicted a mayor from the country's Greek minority to two years in prison for buying votes, a ruling that was expected to raise tensions with neighboring Greece.

The Special Court on Corruption and Organized Crime also handed Pantelis Kokavesis, Beleri's aide, an 18-month suspended sentence.

For the past nine months, Kathimerini has been drawing attention to the judicial odyssey of Fredi Beleri, the mayor-elect of the predominantly ethnic Greek city of Himare in southern Albania, and to the violations of human rights, the rule of law and the principles of democracy entailed in his persecution.