The Supreme Court ruled to uphold the security measure of \u201carrest in prison\u201d for Fredi Beleri, the elected mayor of the Municipality of Himara.<\/p>\n
Judge Sand\u00ebr Simoni announced the ruling in a court session held this Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Beleri, who is accused of vote buying, had appealed for a milder security measure than that of imprisonment.<\/p>\n
Previously, the First Instance Court and the Appeals Court had overruled similar requests, while Beleri was kept in custody.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Investigations were launched after alerts received by the police and the denunciation of a citizen from Himara to the Prosecutor\u2019s Office in Vlora.<\/p>\n
At first, Beleri was investigated by the Prosecutor\u2019s Office in Vlora, but the case was handed over to the Special Anti-Corruption Structure (SPAK) as it was treated as an electoral crime.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Greek expatriate was a candidate of the opposition coalition \u201cTogether We Win\u201d and managed to win the vote against his Socialist Party opponent Jorgo Goro by a tight difference.<\/p>\n
Beleri\u2019s imprisonment was condemned by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who warned of souring relations with Albania over the case, threatening to block Albania\u2019s EU accession path if Beleri is not released.<\/p>\n
However, the Government in Albania has said that the case is \u201ca test for justice\u201d and has asked for the law to prove if his detention was legally motivated.<\/p>\n
Vote buying is one of Albania\u2019s major concerns during election periods. Prosecutors and courts have often proved unwilling or unable to investigate such claims, prompting the opposition to carry out \u201cits own inspections\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Supreme Court ruled to uphold the security measure of \u201carrest in prison\u201d for Fredi Beleri, the elected mayor of the Municipality of Himara. Judge Sand\u00ebr 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. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":53249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153],"tags":[2142,1641,243,151,1015,2072],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n