TIRANA, Albania — A member of Albania’s ethnic Greek minority returned to prison Saturday after a five-day reprieve to attend the opening session of the European Parliament where he was elected to represent Greece’s ruling party.
Beleri, who was elected earlier this month to represent Greece in the European Parliament on ruling New Democracy’s ticket, has been in prison since early March after being handed down a sentence of two years in what he and Athens have described as a “sham trial.”
With a bit over 96% of the votes counted, Beleri had secured 236,271 votes, placing fourth among the seven MEPs elected with the conservatives and fourth among the 21 Greek MEPs overall.
Bakoyannis will address the southern Albanian rally organized at 18:00 by the Greek National Minority organization 'Omonoia', which demands that Beleri, an ethnic Greek, be released from detention and allowed to be sworn in as mayor to assume his duties.
Gerapetritis noted that the Greek government took very important steps from the outset to deal with an issue that has been creating tension between the two countries. In contacts with EU officials associated with Albania's EU accession negotiations process and with NATO, Gerapetritis said he had personally made clear that Albania's accession cannot progress when there is such disregard for the rule of law, the presumption of innocence and respect of civil rights.
