“We thank Greece for fighting alongside us to ensure human rights“, characteristically wrote the elected mayor of Heimarra who is in prison, Fredi Beleris, on the occasion of the visit he received from ND MP, Angelos Syrigos.

Freddy Beleris he also expressed his thanks to the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and mentioned, among other things, that he asked Angelos Syrigos to convey to him his decision to take over as mayor soon to stop the looting of Greek properties.

In his post, he characterizes the accusation against him as “unfair, ridiculous, pretentious and non-existent”, underlining that his goal is “to live in a democratic state where there will be no discrimination based on the national origin of citizens and the policies of intimidation of the resident”.

Freddy Beleris’ post in detail:

“I thank from the bottom of my heart the professor, Member of Parliament of New Democracy, and my close friend Angelos Syrigos who visited me in the prisons of Tirana, sent by the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

I asked Angelos Syrigos to convey to the Greek Prime Minister my decision, which is also a demand of all the people of Himarra, to take up my duties in order to stop the looting of the properties of the diaspora.

They prepared a law that was supposed to be aimed at developing the region by attracting foreign capital. To date, not a single foreigner has invested in our region. All those who have been announced as strategic investors are all Albanians with ties to the government.

Our goal is also to live in a democratic state where there will be no discrimination based on the national origin of the citizens and the policies of intimidation of the residents will stop.

I told Angelos Syrigos that I expect three things:
-to be immediately sworn in as mayor of the municipality where the people voted for me,
– to be released in order to be able to exercise my mayoral duties,
– to dismiss the unfair, ridiculous, pretentious and non-existent charge against me.

In the person of the Greek Prime Minister, we thank Greece for fighting alongside us to ensure our human rights.”

After the end of the visit, Angelos Syrigos made statements to the Albanian media where he summarized that the possibility of Fredy Beleris being dismissed implies a worsening of our country’s relations with Albania.

“I came on behalf of the Greek Government and the ND party to see the elected mayor of Himarra who has been in prison for almost 3 months,” he said according to himara.gr.

“The failure of the Albanian authorities to take the necessary steps to release him or to let him take the oath creates a very serious risk of his removal from the office of mayor. This will cause a serious deterioration in relations between the two countries.

We have three issues here. The first is the rule of law, the second is the presumption of innocence and the third is respect for civil rights. I will talk about the third issue. It is not understood by us and the EU why a man who has been elected and has not gone through any court cannot go to the mayor’s office to take the oath.

It is a serious matter for us. And it has nothing to do with him being in prison. These issues are taken seriously by the EU and may be included in Albania’s EU accession and negotiations that are due to start very soon. Rule of law, presumption of innocence and respect for civil rights”, he summarized.