The elected mayor of Himara, Fredi Beleri, has responded again to Prime Minister Rama, who two days ago asked him and the Greek state to respect the decisions of the Albanian courts.

Through a long post on Facebook, Beleri accuses the prime minister of capturing the justice system. He emphasizes that the prosecutor’s office and the police were used by his order to draw up the vote-buying file.

Beleri emphasizes that at no time during the recordings he wasn’t filmed buying votes, but the file against him was drawn up because of the plan to rob land in Himare.

He compares Prime Minister Rama with President Erdogan, who according to him is an autocrat but at the same time demands that the decisions of the courts be respected.

FULL STATEMENT:

I read a very nice (albeit weird and wordy) post today. It was written by a good and modern politician whose name, as I saw, is Edi Rama. It is likely to be synonymous with Edi Rama, the prime minister of Albania, who a week before the local elections of May 2023 publicly called me “his personal enemy” and insulted me in a vulgar way, calling me a grain of ignorance, scum, trash and other similar insults. It will probably be a synonym because the “good” Edi Rama writes differently and refers to another country that is not Albania.

“The good” Edi Rama was worried by the grand gathering in Himare, on 8-14-2023, for my release. It says the rally was organized by Greek politicians. I believe that he did not understand it well. The gathering was organized by citizens of Albania, of Greek and Albanian origin, where, among others, the mayors from Greece also spoke. It was these citizens of Albania, who, despite what Prime Minister Rama did, were not afraid, but voted for me and elected me mayor in May.

“The good” Edi Rama refers only to the fact that I also have Greek citizenship. He forgets (just like Prime Minister Rama) that I was born in Himare, I am of Greek origin and I speak Greek. Everyone in my family speaks Greek, as does most of the population of Himara. Despite all this, Albania does not accept the fact that a Greek ethnic minority lives in Himara. It only recognizes the presence of Greeks in the municipalities of Finiq and Dropull. Raising the Greek flag is not a right given to us by Prime Minister Rama. It has happened since the creation of the Albanian state and was a condition for Albania to be recognized by the League of Nations.

“The good” Edi Rama talks about the problems that exist throughout Albania with property rights. He obviously does not know that his namesake prime minister, Edi Rama, has designated only Himara as a strategic investment area for tourism, from the entire coastline of Albania. Greeks’ properties are robbed in Himara, not in other areas of Albania. Only in Himare do we have “strategic investors” who turn out to be all friends of Prime Minister Edi Rama…

“The good” Edi Rama will not have learned that in these 33 years (that is, since the fall of communism) that we are hearing about electoral crimes, only one person has been arrested, he is me and I am of Greek origin.

“The good” Edi Rama will also not have learned that 35 cases of electoral irregularities were reported in the May municipal elections. Only I was arrested and left in custody.

“The good” Edi Rama rightly says that the USA and Europe supported the justice reform in the Albanian judicial system. But since everything is judged by the result, in my case it is clear that things in justice are not going well because:

– The police intercepted me with Hoxha’s security methods, which have been banned since the 1990s, recruiting a person convicted of fraud,

– The prosecutor who then ordered the police to carry out the wiretapping did not have the authority to order this wiretapping,

– During the moment of the arrest I was not committing any illegal act, therefore there is no flagrante delicto,

– The judges who started the process against me were all former leaders or close friends with the Albanian Socialist Party.

– At no point during the illegal wiretapping does not it appear that I gave money to buy votes.

– The prosecutor of the Special Court of SACS has used a forged document of my alleged conviction in the past, when in the evidence of the penalty, which is issued electronically, I was not convicted.

– For an alleged corruption of 40,000 lek (380 euros), I have been in custody for three months. By analogy, how many centuries should dozens of Rama’s collaborators prosecuted for corruption be imprisoned?

“The good” Edi Rama refers to an Albanian proverb asking “not to burn the quilt for a flea”. Let me tell you a Greek proverb: “a lion can be distinguished by its claw”. We don’t need to see much. From what Prime Minister Rama has done in my case, we can draw valid conclusions about the general state of justice and the rule of law in my homeland, Albania.

Finally, the “good” Edi Rama says that Greeks and Albanians are “one face, one blood”. Maybe yes maybe no. However, Rama as prime minister certainly shows that he is “one face, one blood” with Erdogan. Even Erdogan talks about independent justice and demands that his decisions be respected.

Concluding, the “good” Edi Rama says let’s let justice do its job undisturbed. Let him then tell Prime Minister Edi Rama to let me take the swearing as mayor. This is not justice. It is the decision of the general director of prisons.

I am waiting Edi Rama!

Fred Beleri