ATHENS, Greece (AP) — An Albanian prison cell wouldn't rank high among choice spots to run a successful campaign for election to the European Parliament.
Fredis Beleris, a member of Albania's ethnic Greek minority, had no choice. Last year he was elected mayor of a town in southern Albania — a candidate to join the European Union — but lost his office and is serving a two-year sentence for vote-buying in that election.
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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — An Albanian prison cell wouldn't rank high among choice spots to run a successful campaign for election to the European Parliament.
Supporters of Beleris stand outside a court in Tirana, Albania, on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. An Albanian appeals court on Tuesday upheld a two-year prison sentence for an elected mayor of the country's Greek minority, in a move expected to further exacerbate tension with neighboring Greece. The appeals court declined to change the verdict of the court of first instance in March on Dhionisios Alfred Beleris, 51, who was imprisoned on charges of vote-buying in municipal elections last year.(AP Photo/Vlasov Sulaj)
Petros Beleris son of Dhionisios Alfred Beleris, speaks to the press outside a court in Tirana, Albania, on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. An Albanian appeals court on Tuesday upheld a two-year prison sentence for an elected mayor of the country's Greek minority, in a move expected to further exacerbate tension with neighboring Greece. The appeals court declined to change the verdict of the court of first instance in March on Dhionisios Alfred Beleris, 51, who was imprisoned on charges of vote-buying in municipal elections last year. (AP Photo/Vlasov Sulaj)
Vangjel Dule, the leader of the Unity for Human Rights Party, a party of ethnic Greek minority, left, arrives at the court in Tirana, Albania, on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. An Albanian appeals court on Tuesday upheld a two-year prison sentence for an elected mayor of the country's Greek minority, in a move expected to further exacerbate tension with neighboring Greece. The appeals court declined to change the verdict of the court of first instance in March on Dhionisios Alfred Beleris, 51, who was imprisoned on charges of vote-buying in municipal elections last year. (AP Photo/Vlasov Sulaj)
FILE - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis speaks next to Fredis Beleris, left, during his visit to the ethnic Greek minority of Albania, in Himare, on Thursday Dec. 22, 2022. Fredis Beleris, an ethnic Greek politician jailed in Albania for vote-buying, says he hopes his election this month to the European Parliament will help boost the rule of law in Albania. Beleris told The Associated Press in an interview from prison that he would have preferred to serve as mayor of the southern Albania community he was elected to lead last year, before his arrest and conviction. His case has soured relations between Balkan neighbors Greece and Albania. (Dimitris Papamitsos/Greek Prime Minister's Office via AP, File)
FILE - Fredis Beleris looks on as Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visits to the ethnic Greek minority of Albania, in Himare, Albania, on Dec. 22, 2022. Fredis Beleris, an ethnic Greek politician jailed in Albania for vote-buying, says he hopes his election this month to the European Parliament will help boost the rule of law in Albania. Beleris told The Associated Press in an interview from prison that he would have preferred to serve as mayor of the southern Albania community he was elected to lead last year, before his arrest and conviction. His case has soured relations between Balkan neighbors Greece and Albania. (Dimitris Papamitsos/Greek Prime Minister's Office via AP, File)
The case soured relations between the two Balkan neighbors and led to the dual Greek-Albanian citizen's election on June 9 to represent EU member Greece in the European Parliament. He ran on the ticket of Greece's governing center-right party.
“I know (my election) will help put a spotlight on a major problem Albania faces, which is the rule of law,” Beleris told The Associated Press in a phone interview Thursday from prison.
“Here, the judiciary is the long arm of politics,” he added. “I think these problems must be brought to the fore — lack of respect for the Greek ethnic minority’s rights, such as the right to property ... and to be governed by the people it elects.”
Beleris' election isn't unique. An Italian leftwing activist held in pretrial detention in EU member Hungary was released after her election to the European Parliament on an Italian party's ballot.
Members of the legislature enjoy substantial legal immunity from prosecution within the 27-state EU, even if the allegations relate to crimes committed prior to their election. But Albania is not an EU member, and unlike Beleris, the new Italian MEP had not been convicted in court.
Athens described Beleris' detention and trial as politically motivated and implied Albania's prospects of joining the EU would suffer. The case is complicated by fractious Balkan politics, minority rights and property disputes on a prime coastal stretch of what's marketed as the Albanian Riviera, the top tourist destination in the country.
Some 10 million tourists visited the small country last year, contributing about a fifth of the economy.
“I had no intention of entering politics in Greece, it was because of the need to highlight this huge problem,” Beleris said. “Anybody who knows me knows for sure that I would prefer to have been mayor.”
Beleris, 51, was arrested two days before the May 14, 2023 municipal elections in Himare, on the Albanian Riviera, 220 kilometers (140 miles) southwest of the capital Tirana. He was charged with offering some 40,000 Albanian leks (360 euros; $390) to buy eight votes.
He won with a 19-vote lead, backed by the ethnic Greek minority party and others opposing Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama's governing Socialists. But he never took office, being detained until his court conviction in March. An appeals court upheld the ruling Tuesday.
Beleris denies the charges, claiming that Prime Minister Rama directly targeted him to keep control of Himare, and that judges ignored evidence in his favor.
Albanian officials strongly reject his claims, citing the independence of the judiciary.
Judicial corruption has long plagued post-communist Albania. The system recently underwent deep reforms, following EU and U.S. pressure to root out bribery and ensure judges are independent from politics.
Beleris said he believes that at the heart of his case are “huge financial interests as far as tourist development is concerned.”
“But it’s also that the Albanian prime minister doesn’t want the local (ethnic) Greek population to share in that prosperity,” he said. “That’s a direct breach of our human and minority rights.”
Relations between Greece and Albania have been at times uneasy, largely over minority rights and the sizeable Albanian migrant community in Greece.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has strongly backed Beleris, giving him a place on his New Democracy party's ticket. Beleris won some 235,000 votes, coming in fourth among the seven MEPs the party elected.
Mitsotakis' move came as ND was struggling to staunch a leak of votes from its traditional conservative base towards small far-right parties. Greece is also at loggerheads with another small Balkan neighbor and EU hopeful, North Macedonia, and has suggested that that country's efforts to join the bloc could also suffer in consequence.
So far, the EU Commission has treated the Beleris matter as a bilateral dispute. EU membership talks with Albania and North Macedonia started in 2022 and are expected to last for years.
“I think Albania must join the European Union sooner or later, but … with the rules and the rule of law that befit a European country,” Beleris said.
Llazar Semini in Tirana, Albania, contributed.
Greek ambassador to Tirana Konstantina Kamitsi speaks to the press outside a court in Tirana, Albania, on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. An Albanian appeals court on Tuesday upheld a two-year prison sentence for an elected mayor of the country's Greek minority, in a move expected to further exacerbate tension with neighboring Greece. The appeals court declined to change the verdict of the court of first instance in March on Dhionisios Alfred Beleris, 51, who was imprisoned on charges of vote-buying in municipal elections last year.(AP Photo/Vlasov Sulaj)
Supporters of Beleris stand outside a court in Tirana, Albania, on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. An Albanian appeals court on Tuesday upheld a two-year prison sentence for an elected mayor of the country's Greek minority, in a move expected to further exacerbate tension with neighboring Greece. The appeals court declined to change the verdict of the court of first instance in March on Dhionisios Alfred Beleris, 51, who was imprisoned on charges of vote-buying in municipal elections last year.(AP Photo/Vlasov Sulaj)
Petros Beleris son of Dhionisios Alfred Beleris, speaks to the press outside a court in Tirana, Albania, on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. An Albanian appeals court on Tuesday upheld a two-year prison sentence for an elected mayor of the country's Greek minority, in a move expected to further exacerbate tension with neighboring Greece. The appeals court declined to change the verdict of the court of first instance in March on Dhionisios Alfred Beleris, 51, who was imprisoned on charges of vote-buying in municipal elections last year. (AP Photo/Vlasov Sulaj)
Vangjel Dule, the leader of the Unity for Human Rights Party, a party of ethnic Greek minority, left, arrives at the court in Tirana, Albania, on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. An Albanian appeals court on Tuesday upheld a two-year prison sentence for an elected mayor of the country's Greek minority, in a move expected to further exacerbate tension with neighboring Greece. The appeals court declined to change the verdict of the court of first instance in March on Dhionisios Alfred Beleris, 51, who was imprisoned on charges of vote-buying in municipal elections last year. (AP Photo/Vlasov Sulaj)
FILE - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis speaks next to Fredis Beleris, left, during his visit to the ethnic Greek minority of Albania, in Himare, on Thursday Dec. 22, 2022. Fredis Beleris, an ethnic Greek politician jailed in Albania for vote-buying, says he hopes his election this month to the European Parliament will help boost the rule of law in Albania. Beleris told The Associated Press in an interview from prison that he would have preferred to serve as mayor of the southern Albania community he was elected to lead last year, before his arrest and conviction. His case has soured relations between Balkan neighbors Greece and Albania. (Dimitris Papamitsos/Greek Prime Minister's Office via AP, File)
FILE - Fredis Beleris looks on as Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visits to the ethnic Greek minority of Albania, in Himare, Albania, on Dec. 22, 2022. Fredis Beleris, an ethnic Greek politician jailed in Albania for vote-buying, says he hopes his election this month to the European Parliament will help boost the rule of law in Albania. Beleris told The Associated Press in an interview from prison that he would have preferred to serve as mayor of the southern Albania community he was elected to lead last year, before his arrest and conviction. His case has soured relations between Balkan neighbors Greece and Albania. (Dimitris Papamitsos/Greek Prime Minister's Office via AP, File)
