“My crime is that we Himara people want to be the masters of our ancestral land.
“My crime is that my fellow Himarans elected me as mayor against the plans of Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama,” said Fredi Beleris commenting on the decision of the Albanian court that sentenced him to two years in prison for corruption in the 2023 local elections.
The elected mayor of Himara speaks of a mock trial and assures that he will continue his fight for justice and democracy. “I have as much patience as it takes to get to the end of this case,” he says.
His statement in detail
“It was a mock trial. With a fake criminal record, no evidence, no witnesses other than one who was bribed by the police, with an “appointed” judge, in a glass cage without communication with my lawyer, today the Albanian court sentenced me to two years in prison.
My crime is that we Himarrans want to be the masters of our ancestral land.
My crime is that my fellow Himarans elected me Mayor against the plans of the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
European Union and USA, is this the Justice you want for us? I leave the judges to the mockery of the Albanian people.
I will continue my fight for justice and democracy in the name of my fellow citizens. Sooner or later, I will find justice.
I have as much patience as I need to reach the end of this case.”
Athens’ reaction
“Selective application of judicial decisions and discounting of judicial judgments that is not in line with the principles of the rule of law” is what the Greek Foreign Ministry refers to in its first reaction after the conviction of the elected mayor of Himara, Fredi Beleri, by the Albanian court.
“The final sentence is obviously disproportionate in relation to the extent of the alleged offence”, the Greek Foreign Ministry also notes in its statement, noting that the Greek government will closely monitor the case and looks forward to a fair and objective judgment in the second instance of jurisdiction.
The Foreign Ministry’s statement in detail
“Today’s conviction by an Albanian court against the elected mayor of Himara, Fredi Beleri, intensifies the concerns that have been raised regarding the objectivity of the proceedings.
This is due to the fact that the presumption of innocence is shaken by statements and actions from outside that were in favour of the conviction and that the final sentence is obviously disproportionate to the extent of the alleged offence.
And the fact that the sentence is calculated to prevent him from being released from prison prevents the elected mayor from taking office, even today, and keeps the defeated candidate in office, despite the express court order of months ago that imposed his immediate removal.
The selective application of judicial decisions and the discounting of judicial judgments is not consistent with the principles of the rule of law.
The Greek government will follow the case closely and looks forward to a fair and objective judgment in the second instance”.
Samaras on Beleris: Rama’s Albania has no place in Europe
“The conviction of Beleri not only provokes Greece, but shows its contempt for the rules governing the EU.
Therefore, today’s Albania of Rama has no place in Europe,” former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said in a written statement.
What the court decided
Two years in prison was the court’s verdict for Fredi Beleris.
His associate, Pantelis Kokavasis, was given 18 months with a three-year suspended sentence.
Their lawyers are expected to appeal against the Albanian court’s decision.
Earlier, Fredi Beleris in his apology addressed the judges, stating: “Today you must say no to the pressure of power, no to punishment without evidence, no to discrimination, say no to sick nationalism, say yes to the separation of powers, say yes to an independent judiciary, say yes to equality before the law.”
“I want to tell you with full confidence that from the first day this case started until today, it has been and remains a purely political issue.
The decision to arrest me was taken on Wednesday, 10.05.2023, at a meeting held at the General Police Headquarters, attended by chiefs from all police stations.
It is precisely this decision that the prosecutors’ proposal came to legitimize.
The plan was to arrest me in order to lose the election and release me again a week after the election. T
hat plan was spoiled by the citizens of Himara who elected me mayor,” he added, among other things, in his apology.
Earlier, he addressed a letter to the ambassadors of the European Union and the United States in Albania.
The entire defence of Fredi Beleris:
In the previous session I had planned to read only a few lines, because the lawyers had explained the legal issues in detail, but since, from your side, the final discussions of the defense and the defendant were interrupted, something that rarely to never happens, I take the opportunity you have given me, setting out at length my final arguments.
In advance, and in order to clarify for you, Mr. President of the sitting, in relation to what I have presented at each sitting on the conduct of the court sessions, I clarify that it is my right to make statements whenever I deem it necessary, with or without consultation with the defence counsel.
Secondly, during my detention, I have learned that the session is conducted by the President with interim orders and decisions, therefore, any comments on the conduct of the session are addressed to you in your capacity as President.
Also, the decision to dismiss Judge Ms. Gioka, after she delayed the proceedings on my complaint against citizen Abdul Rama, for two months, achieving the objective, is your personal responsibility.
Your personal responsibility is also the justification for the decision to reject my request for permission to swear before the Himara City Council.
In that decision, you, with your political argumentation, solved the problems that the Prime Minister had by proposing unconstitutional solutions for the establishment of a state of emergency in the Municipality of Himara.
Honorable judges!
In every session I have seen here, from the cage, a trial that could have been held once upon a time, but not in a European state in 2024, when it is considered that justice has been consolidated after at least 30 years, when we are officially not in a dictatorship, when justice should have the courage to do justice.
This cage not only flattens you psychologically, but also makes it difficult to communicate with the lawyer.
So from where I am, I have seen the constant efforts of the prosecutor, Mr. Xholi, who, in order to get your attention so that you would accept any kind of request, was banging his pen on the table.
I understand very well that you are under constant pressure, but it is not my fault.
You chose to perform this task willingly, but I did not.
This is a political problem, which is related to the administration of the municipality of Himara, where they decided to solve the problem, not by voting, but by funny and amateurish tricks, then asking you, as a judiciary, to certify this travesty.
I have carefully read the prosecution findings, findings that clearly show a mnemonic of unsubstantiated lies, which in the years to come, law professors will be analysing in university lecture halls with their students as the most fruitful bibliographical reference to show how a judicial process can be manipulated from start to finish.
These findings the honourable prosecutors can proudly send these findings to their political bosses, to those who commissioned them, with the signature: ‘Mission successfully accomplished’! But under no circumstances can these findings be taken into account by a judiciary.
During the proceedings you did not accept any of my requests for an expert opinion.
You did not force the state police to submit before the court the illegal decision to pay the witness. You did not bring the witness into the courtroom to confront the person in the photo, who the prosecution claims is the witness.
From this evidence and much more, it appears that, although I did not move for summary judgment, the proceedings were conducted in accordance with the practice of summary judgment, but without the benefit of a one-third reduction in sentence. The manner in which the procedure was conducted was clearly imposed by the prosecutor.
All of the prosecution’s claims were challenged by my lawyers and detailed how the prosecution in this case was led by the police from start to finish.
At every stage of the investigation and trial, the prosecution tried to fabricate evidence to cover up the mistakes and blunders of the police so that the truth would not come out.
From the outset, in the appeal against the security measure, we argued that the 24-hour police surveillance showed that I had never met the prosecution’s “Navy”.
The prosecution excuses that it is true that I was monitored 24 hours a day, but the result is not exhaustive and to prove it they produced some fines that the “Sailor” got in a car a year ago in Vlora, and the same car is seen somewhere in front of a café where I used to hang out.
Also, the special prosecutor found a man wearing a hoodie in a photo and immediately dropped the “smoke bomb” – he looks like Arsenis.
The “live” Arsenis, in the audience, was not asked about the photo, but was asked about the clothes he was wearing. When we brought in the man who was with me that day, the special prosecution examines the cameras, which way he passed, left or right, and that is enough to make the witness unreliable.
We asked the court to recall the “Navy”, to have a confrontation between them, to have the court itself examine them, with its own eyes, why trust the eyes of the policeman, after all, three pairs of judges’ eyes are more than two pairs of the policeman’s eyes, but the court rejected this request as well.
We have pointed out that “Sailor” is lying, he has been convicted of fraud, the prosecution must verify his statements. It is impossible to remain in jail based on the statements of a man who is a proven fraud and thief.
A 20 year old, 10 years ago was 10 years old and could not have done business with me as he claimed. When re-examined, the special prosecutor makes sure that the “Sailor” says that his family had business dealings with me, sold me fish and helped the family, when the same “Sailor” should have attended school during those 10 years that he sold me fish, as he said, in Vlora, at a school he does not remember.
During those 10 years, this “Sailor” was in Vlora Prison for fraud and in Durres Prison for burglary of apartments in conspiracy with other perpetrators he never revealed.
We countered the wiretapping because the prosecution had made the documents after my arrest and submitted them to the court out of time.
The special appeal court, in a trial that began with my appeal, accepts that the prosecution’s request is untimely, but asks the Vlora prosecution to send a register noting the time of submission of the request to the court.
So it says to the prosecution, find a register, note the time and send it.
And prosecutor Matilda Peza found a register where it was signed by an anonymous clerk of the court in Vlora, where the president is her brother, Enkel Peza, with no first and last name.
Thus, a useless record, with an anonymous signature, served to legitimize the actions of the police without a court order.
No one was surprised that the secretary goes to work at 12 midnight for a request that seems to have been submitted at 2:45 p.m., an action she could only carry out at the order of the president, the brother of prosecutor Peza.
We asked said president for the wiretap register, the name of the official who signed the prosecutor’s protocol, but he refuses to answer, of course he will cover for his sister.
And it was considered by You as a perfectly normal action, You did not accept my request to request information from the court in Vlora.
We contradicted the criminal record of May 12 that was filed by the Vlora prosecution, but the special prosecution found a paid employee of the General Police Directorate to state that the changes in the system were made on June 6, 2023, while the same system had been changed at least since March.
Throughout the year 2023 the system had been changed, only on May 12, when the security measure against me had to be determined, the system had not been changed.
We objected to the wiretaps and surveillance for the fact that they were carried out by the police without the prosecutor’s permission, that according to the acts of the Vlora prosecutor’s office, the wiretaps and police surveillance started a day before the registration of the criminal proceedings in that prosecutor’s office, but for prosecutor Xholi it is a slip of the secretariat.
Now we are waiting, what evidence the prosecution will fabricate against the “Navy” phone records or the cameras of Hermira Stoli, taken as evidence.
That’s why the previous meeting was adjourned, to give the prosecution time to pull out of the drawers of the police or the Avlon prosecutor’s office any other letter to be able to explain:
-How is it possible that the “Sailor” is on the same day and time in two different places at the same time, both in the center of Himara talking on the phone and in the Vlora prosecutor’s office, giving statements, at 14:00, and signing the agreement with prosecutor Matilda Peza (so said police officer Ermal Ajdini, this prosecutor had the case and was constantly communicating with her), at 15:00 on May 8?
-How is it possible that on the same day and time the “Sailor” could be in two different places at the same time, both in the center of Himara talking on the phone, and with me in the River, 2 km away, on May 10, at 08:40?
-How is it possible for the “Sailor” to be in two different places on the same day and at the same time, both in Vlora and at the Himara police station, on 12 May at 6 o’clock, to hand over the money that Pantelis had given him, which he even counted but no fingerprint was found on it, and the list that Pantelis had but was not found in his pocket, and Arsene handed it over to the diligent police officer Ermal Ajdini?
-How did the “Sailor” contact me on 11 May, at 17:10, without getting out of the vehicle parked in front of the “Iceland” shop, when on the same date and time I was inside the shop?
-perhaps here in this case, because of its importance to the police and the prosecution, special methods of teleportation and special methods of telepathic communication were used. We will hear from the prosecution, because they must have found something in those five days that your court gave them time to catch their breath.
Honorable judges!
Albania is a small country, which has become even smaller in recent years due to the mass exodus of its citizens. Good and bad, Greek or Albanian, accused and accuser, we are very few. So we know each other well, and sooner or later, all the truths will come out.
I want to tell you with complete certainty that from the first day this case started and until today, it has been and remains a purely political issue.
The decision to arrest me was taken on Wednesday, 10.05.2023, at a meeting held at the General Police Directorate, attended by chiefs from all police stations.
It is precisely this decision that the prosecutors’ proposal came to legitimize.
The plan was to arrest me in order to lose the elections and release me again a week after the elections. That plan was ruined by the citizens of Himara who elected me Mayor.
That is why he is taking this case from the beginning, violating all the principles of justice, the presumption of innocence, equality, due process, judicial hierarchy, etc.
All your decisions were political decisions. The denial of special permission for the swearing-in was also a political decision, exceeding the powers. This part of the decision was rejected by the Court of Appeal.
It is also a political decision that my complaints are pending without any response, even though a long time has passed.
Also, the prosecution’s request for 2 years and 6 months imprisonment also makes no legal sense.
This sentence has not been requested for any accused on the same charge.
All Special Court judgments on this charge are one year suspended sentence. Two mayors on the same charge are not only not in jail as I am, but remain in office, performing their duties.
Naturally, the question arises: Why am I facing this discrimination?
The prosecution’s request has no intention of doing justice.
Its sole purpose is to sentence me to prison for as long as the Prime Minister needs to ‘hold’ new elections in Himara. I want to assure them that even in this objective they will fail because no matter how many times elections are held in Himara, the result will be the same.
The deaf have heard and the blind have seen, the citizens of Himara cannot be fooled as historically no one has been able to fool them.
It is unfair to give ethnic connotations to this issue.
It is untrue and at the same time insulting and reckless, not only to the citizens of Himara who voted for me, regardless of their nationality and religious beliefs, but also against the united opposition.
The exclusivity of patriotism does not belong only to the Prime Minister, the police, the prosecution and the ‘patronage’ of the Socialist Party, but is a constitutional duty of every citizen.
Patriotism is not about siding with journalists and lawyers who want to play the role of judge to serve the regime or the interests of media owners.
Patriotism is to love the country and not to do anything that harms its independence and progress, to apply the Constitution and the laws, regardless of the momentary personal costs that may be incurred.
The drilling rig sets to work on the deposits of Crete
Patriotism is to perform your duty with honesty, not to become a tool of momentary political goals. Patriotism is to bring criminal liability to anyone, no matter how powerful.
Patriotism is treating everyone equally, as equal citizens of the same country, using the same means of investigation and adjudication for everyone, not hiding violations of the law from anyone who committed them.
Mr. Xholi, in the state of the acts in this file, the only legal way would be to drop the charge and find the real culprits responsible for this situation that has put the judicial system to the test.
I am calm and with full confidence. I do not feel guilty of any charge. Sooner or later, I will find my justice. I would like it to be this judiciary that puts an end to this farce and absurdity. If that doesn’t happen, I have enough patience to see this case through to the end.
Honorable judges!
On very few occasions in the life of an ordinary person is given the opportunity to say a big yes or a big no.
You judges in this respect are lucky that this opportunity is given to you many times.
This procedure is one of those cases where you are put before history.
Today you have to say no to the pressure of power, no to punishment without evidence, no to discrimination, no to sick nationalism, yes to the separation of powers, yes to an independent judiciary, yes to equality before the law.
History respects and honours those who make the right decision; the others are merely transient.
History will treat the prosecutors Mrs Bejko and Mr Xholi as transient and loyal to the party-state.
I am convinced that during the hearing you have adequately served power and imaginary patriotism.
Please, it is now time for you to serve Justice, which, according to Aristotle, is the highest of all virtues.
