TIRANA, Albania. TIRANA, Albania (AP) — A member of Albania’s ethnic Greek minority. He returned to prison the Saturday after a five day respite to attend the inaugural session of the European Parliament, where he was elected to represent Greece’s ruling party.
Fredis Beleris, who has dual Greek-Albanian citizenship, is serving a two-year prison sentence for vote buying in last year’s municipal elections in Albania. He denies the charges and Greece has described the case against him as politically motivated.
“I don’t regret going back to the (prison) cell,” Beleris said upon landing at Tirana’s international airport.
The 51-year-old politician won the European Parliament after winning a place on the list of Greece’s ruling New Democracy party in last month’s European elections. She received 238,801 votes, fourth among the seven members elected by the party.
Members of the European Parliament enjoy legal immunity from prosecution within the 27-state bloc, including for accusations related to crimes committed before their election. But Albania does not still a member of the EU.
Beleris was arrested two days before municipal elections on May 14, 2023 in Himara, with a large ethnic Greek minority in the Albanian Riviera town, 220 kilometers (140 miles) southwest of the capital, Tirana. He was accused of offering about 40,000 Albanian leks (360 euros or $390) to buy eight votes.
He won last year’s municipal elections by 19 votes, backed by the ethnic Greek minority party and others who oppose Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s socialist rulers. But he never took office and was detained until his court conviction in March. An appeals court upheld the ruling last month and Albanian authorities stripped Beleris of his position as mayor of Himara, where new elections will be held on August 4.
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