By GENC POLLO
The standard definition of a political prisoner is “someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner’s detention”. If it still holds Albania might have gotten one. Fredi Beleri, who ran on an opposition ticket in the local government elections in May this year, fits very well in this description. A quick Google search would show his name in recent barbs traded between Greek and Albanian officials. Still some media reports presenting the Beleri case as a bilateral Albanian-Greek issue are misleading: the Beleri case is a serious matter of basic human rights (habeas corpus), of rule of law and of democracy for Albania. Regardless of whether Greece or the European Union take interest.
Beleri was the challenging mayoral candidate for Himara, a municipality on the Ionian sea. He clearly led any opinion poll and that is probably why Prime Minister Edi Rama kept attacking him viciously and personally. Rama’s abuse with Beleri was incomparable with any of his generally rude attacks to any challenger to the ruling party mayors. Still Beleri kept leading and eventually won the race. He learned of his victory in a prison cell.
Beleri was arrested on charges of vote-buying. In the last decade vote-buying has become a fixture problem in the Albanian elections and a standing concern in the respective international monitoring reports of the OSCE. The truth is that vote-buying is a ruling party specialty because of accumulated public money & crime proceeds. The opposition has been marginalized and even deprived of the regular legal means (campaign finance & presence in vote count) through administrative tricks.
However no ruling party candidate has been investigated let alone arrested or indicted on such charges
The arrest of Beleri followed a “sting operation” of sorts. Police hired a former criminal who promised to nail Beleri for vote buying (they didn’t use such a technique for other candidates despite abundant evidence). The written indictment shows no interaction between Beleri and the “infiltrated person”
The whole police/prosecutorial/judicial process is marred by violations the Criminal Procedure Law. Still Beleri remains in pretrial detentions while his associate who had a meeting with the police infiltrator has been set free. Under the law Beleri needs to take the mayoral oath within three months from the election. He cannot do it while in prison and his trial can last longer than one year. Rama seems to aim the annulling and the repetition of the Himara election.
There must be a reason why Rama was personally invested in such risky behaviour trespassing legal and democratic norms that he hadn’t until yet trespassed (ie. arresting opposition candidates during the campaign). The obvious explanation is the greedy approach to the Ionian Sea-coast development with Himara administering the most coveted part of it.
A group of oligarchs around Rama have been set to grab the land (beaches and hill slopes) that belongs mostly to local traditional residents in order to develop touristic resorts. They use the state agencies to force owners to sell at fire-sale prices. There have been cases of land grab through cadaster officials falsifying property documents. Rama’s Foreign Minister has been caught in a scandal (corruption or/and conflict of interest) as she used state resources to favor her family hotel investments in Himara. The parliamentary majority is blocking the opposition inquiry and is ignoring Constitutional Court rulings on the case.
Beleri had repeatedly vowed to use mayoral powers for hindering such predatory and corrupt practices. Given the municipal competences in urban planning he would have some legal instruments for keeping that promise. The Socialist party incumbent has always been compliant with the wishes of the Rama government and assorted oligarchs.
As Beleri is a dual national there have been systematic Greek protests starting with PM Mitsotakis since the day of his arrest. That has made possible for Rama to launch nationalism-laced tirades against the “Greek intrusion”. However, prior to the local campaign, Mitsotakis visited Greek minority municipalities in Southern Albania accompanied only by Rama and his Socialist party officials. This was a boost for the ruling party but Rama found ways “to pay back” by arresting Beleri.
The European Parliament on 11 July in the consensually adopted Albania resolution: “…Expresses its concern at the arrest of the new mayor of Chimara, Freddy Beleri, on the eve of the municipal elections in May, which both violated the presumption of innocence and prevented the mayor-elect from taking office, as he remains imprisoned to this day; underlines that this matter is linked to overall respect for fundamental rights, the pending issue of the properties … in the municipal area and the accusations of encroachments by the State”
The European Commission has been silent so far on the issue except for saying they are monitoring the court case. Its Vice President Margaritis Schinas has made pointed statements but they seem to fall in line with the press releases by other Greek officials. However the Commission have voiced concern about similar cases in distant countries that are not (cannot be) EU candidates. In their formalistic approach they shouldn’t talk about a court case in a candidate’s country until a final ruling. Which presupposes a normally functioning judiciary. This fits in the Commission’s narrative of “continuous progress” of Albania as a candidate’s country despite this narrative’s detachment from reality.
The Beleri case will be a bellwether one. Not only for Albania’s relationship with Greece or her advances towards the EU membership. But most importantly it will test the tolerance to the extent of arbitrariness by an authoritarian ruler who has concentrated and personalised government power. Indeed should Rama be able to have Beleri removed as mayor, nothing will prevent him to repeat the same trick with the opposition leader in the upcoming general elections should the latter lead the opinion polls.
Genc Pollo is a former Albanian Former Minister and MP.
16 August 2023
