Himare mayor-elect lashes out at Albanian PM

The mayor-elect of the predominantly ethnic Greek city of Himare in southern Albania lashed out against the country’s Prime Minister Edi Rama after authorities refused to grant him leave from pretrial detention to take his mayoral oath.

In an announcement issued from a prison in the capital Tirana on Tuesday, a day after his appeal for temporary release was denied, Fredi Beleri indicated that his arrest for buying votes in the May 14 local elections and Rama’s “libelous and vulgar attack” against him in the runup to the vote, were part of an attempt to “alter the result.”

“If human rights and the rule of law are left to their fate in this corner [of the world], it will be a defeat for democracy,” Beleri said in the statement, in which he called on European and world leaders to push the Albanian government for his release.

Beleri has denied the charges brought against him.

Monday’s decision not to allow him to take his oath of office prompted a response from the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs.