Ethnic Greek mayor in Albania leaves jail to take oath at European Parliament

15/7/2024 19:05

        Ethnic Greek politician Fredi Beleri left an Albanian jail on Monday to travel to Strasbourg to take the oath as a European Parliament lawmaker but will return to serve his sentence on vote-buying charges.
        
        Local media showed Beleri, who won a seat in the EU parliament as a candidate for Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' conservative New Democracy Party, leaving jail in a diplomatic car belonging to the Greek embassy.
        
        Beleri was arrested in May 2023 during a mayoral election campaign in his hometown of Himare, which has an active ethnic Greek community. He subsequently won the vote but was never sworn in while being held in pre-trial detention before being jailed for two years in March this year for election fraud.