Fredi Beleri

Diplomatic sources from Brussels reaffirmed on Tuesday Greece's stance that it will not consent to Albania's EU accession process without progress on the issue of the elected mayor of Himare, Fredi Beleri.

There is currently no mention of Albania as a European Union candidate country in the Enlargement chapter of the latest draft of the forthcoming European Council, which starts Thursday.

Fredi Beleri's request to be sworn in as mayor of Himare was rejected by Albania's Special Appeals Court for Corruption and Organized Crime on Monday.

Beleri was arrested in May on voting fraud charges just before winning the municipal election in the predominantly ethnic-Greek southern Albanian region of Himare. He is currently in pretrial detention.

Albania's Special Appeals Court for Corruption and Organized Crime is set to resume the examination of Fredi Beleri's request on Monday. Beleri, the elected mayor of Himare currently in pretrial detention on charges of vote-buying, is seeking permission to be sworn in before the municipal council.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has reiterated his position on the case of Fredi Beleri, the ethnic Greek mayor-elect of Himare, southern Albania, currently in pretrial detention on charges of vote-buying, stressing the matter is exclusively within the jurisdiction of Albania's judiciary.

Albania's Special Appeals Court for Corruption and Organized Crime has postponed for December 11 the examination of a request from Fredi Beleri, the elected mayor of Himara currently in pretrial detention, who is seeking permission to be sworn in before the municipal council.

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.