The European Court of Human Rights has found that Albania violated the right to liberty of Fredi Beleris by prolonging his pre-trial detention without adequate legal justification.

In a judgment published on 10 November 2026 in the case of Beleri v. Albania (application no. 28070/23), the Strasbourg court held that the continued detention from 19 July 2023 onwards breached Article 5 §3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Beleris is a member of indigenous ethnic Greek minority in Northern Epirus in the southern part of Albania, and now a Member of the European Parliament for Greece’s New Democracy party and the European People’s Party.

He was arrested on 12 May 2023, two days before local elections in Himara as part of the political persecution of the Albanian PM Edi Rama against the Greek minority.

He was elected mayor while in custody but was not allowed to take the oath of office at the time.

The Court distinguished between the initial placement in detention, which it found lawful, and the subsequent prolongation.

Albanian authorities, the judges concluded, failed to sufficiently reassess whether detention remained necessary after the investigation progressed and did not properly consider less restrictive measures.

The ECHR awarded Beleris €450 for non-pecuniary damage and €5,000 for legal costs and expenses, while rejecting his claim for lost income as mayor of Himara.

What is important, though, is not the amount awarded to Fredi Beleris, but the actual ruling that Albania, once again, violated the rights of a member of the ethnic Greek minority of the country. It is a continuation of the “velvet ethnic cleansing” going on in the country by Edi Rama.

In a statement, Beleris described the ruling as vindication of his application and linked the case to broader concerns about the rule of law and the protection of the Greek national minority in Albania.