The Supreme Court ruled to uphold the security measure of “arrest in prison” for Fredi Beleri, the elected mayor of the Municipality of Himara.
Judge Sandër Simoni announced the ruling in a court session held this Tuesday.
Beleri, who is accused of vote buying, had appealed for a milder security measure than that of imprisonment.
Previously, the First Instance Court and the Appeals Court had overruled similar requests, while Beleri was kept in custody.
Fredi Beleri was arrested two days ahead of the May 14 local elections, under suspicions of offering money in order to obtain votes in favor of him in the electoral process.
Investigations were launched after alerts received by the police and the denunciation of a citizen from Himara to the Prosecutor’s Office in Vlora.
At first, Beleri was investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office in Vlora, but the case was handed over to the Special Anti-Corruption Structure (SPAK) as it was treated as an electoral crime.
Even though Fredi Beleri received his mayoral mandate from the Central Elections Commission (CEC), he has not been able to carry on with the swearing in ceremony in front of the Municipal Council of Himara, thus not yet taking duty as the elected mayor of Himara, a bilingual municipality with a substantial Greek minority.
The Greek expatriate was a candidate of the opposition coalition “Together We Win” and managed to win the vote against his Socialist Party opponent Jorgo Goro by a tight difference.
Beleri’s imprisonment was condemned by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who warned of souring relations with Albania over the case, threatening to block Albania’s EU accession path if Beleri is not released.
However, the Government in Albania has said that the case is “a test for justice” and has asked for the law to prove if his detention was legally motivated.
Vote buying is one of Albania’s major concerns during election periods. Prosecutors and courts have often proved unwilling or unable to investigate such claims, prompting the opposition to carry out “its own inspections”.
