The Court of Appeals Against Organized Crime and Corruption in Albania rejected the request of Fredi Beleri, the elected mayor of Himara municipality. Through his lawyer, he had requested permission to be sworn in as the first citizen of Himara.

Through a social media post, Beleri argued that this decision was taken by the order of Prime Minister Edi Rama.

“Today, the Court, ordered by the political power, struck the elections in Himara once again. Six months after my request, it implemented the Prime Minister’s order – the Supreme Judge, not to give me permission to be sworn in and take the mandate. Without the oath, the mandate is not effective. Without the oath, the constitutional right of elections is violated. It seems as if there have been no elections in Himara. With the force of power, in violation of the Constitution, and with the unlawful blessing of a personal court of the Prime Minister, every principle, constitutional and European norm is being violated to prevent the Himara Municipality from being released… All our attention is on the Constitutional Court. I have filed several requests there. Three months have passed since my appeal against the security measure was submitted for trial, and there is still no trial date. Rama’s pressure remains heavy even there. We expect the Constitutional Court to at least defend democracy, to defend the Constitution! Hope dies last, but day by day, hope is dying in this country,” Beleri expressed among other things.

At the end of the session at the Court of Appeals Against Organized Crime and Corruption, in a statement to the media, Beleri’s lawyer announced that they would address the Supreme Court with an appeal.

“We will go to the Supreme Court for an appeal. The Court’s decision covers the Government’s actions to treat Himara as if it were in a state of emergency, but this is not true. What is happening is the suppression of legitimate bodies stemming from elections and in this sense, the Court today upheld the first-instance decision without changing anything from that decision,” said the lawyer.

“We were not given the court’s reasoning for the decision; I expect to be familiar with the arguments now. The judge was not excluded either, which we had requested. Last time, the judge warned us that she would not grant permission, as she asked us about our opinion on the article discussing the rejection of the request, which at that moment we requested her exclusion, but it was not realized,” said the lawyer.

He warned that they would not stop seeking the revocation of the security measure.

“The practice of Strasbourg allows us, whenever there is the possibility of seeking the revocation of the security measure or the possibility of replacing the security measure, we will pursue it,” said the lawyer.

Fredi Beleri was arrested 2 days before the local elections on May 14 near a café in Himara, as the Prosecutor’s Office suspects he was caught red-handed along with his accomplice Pandeli Kokaveshi buying votes.