“My father was imprisoned with a false criminal record” – What Freddie Belleri’s son reported

In an interview with him, the son of Freddy Beleris spoke about the new prosecutor’s proposal for imprisonment, while his father is kept incarcerated without the right to be sworn in as mayor. Petros Beleris said that “After a nine-month odyssey, we reached the point yesterday of having a proposal from the prosecutor, which of course is not binding, but it is a sample of writing how it is treated and what they are planning to the detriment of the Greeks of Albania and of the Greek ethnic minority”.

Speaking to ERT, Beleris’ son says that “Unfortunately, this proposal was made not only without evidence, without even indications. It’s an unprecedented thing. There is no doubt that the new judiciary in Albania is fully controlled. There is no doubt that this is a political trial. Let’s go break all the records. It is something that has never happened before, even in Albania.”

“He was jailed on a false criminal record”

“In order to arrest my father and keep him in custody for 9.5 months, a fake criminal record was used, which was discovered by some prosecutors,” said the son of the elected mayor and added:

“The problem is that a few days earlier than in May when he was arrested when he stood as a candidate for the municipal elections and won, his criminal record was clean, while later from his arrest until today, whenever requested by the Albanian authorities, it is confirmed as clean.

Only on the day he was supposed to be arrested, his criminal record showed him as convicted and based on that forged criminal record he has been arrested to this day and kept locked up in prisons,” he pointed out.

“My father is determined, but we see done”

Then, he said, “I talk to my father every day, he is focused on his goal and is patiently waiting for this thing we are going through to end. He is determined. That’s why we won to defend our demands and our rights in Albania. We see that some things are being done with the Municipality of Heimarra and this is what saddens us and worries us more than anything”, noted Petros Beleris, but at the same time pointed out:

“They haven’t given him a few days’ leave to take the oath. This is the stamp of the regime and why it keeps him inside. There is no reason why he should not be given a few hours’ leave to take the oath of office and then conclude the trial. I will also remind you of the images we had seen at the grandmother’s funeral, which what can we say now were unprecedented things for any state.

As I often hear officials and politicians in Albania say that we do not have equal treatment and independent justice between Greeks and Albanians. In fact, the exact opposite is happening.”

“They are making fortunes in Himarra as it is a pole of tourist development and black money”

“Heimarra has been a pole of tourist development in recent years. The value of land has skyrocketed. In Albania in general there is a lot of black money and through tourism development is a way to channel this black money. In Himarra we also have a problem with property titles.

Due to the communist regime, no one has property titles and there is a murky situation in property,” added his son Fredis Beleris and underlined: “They are exploiting, grabbing the properties of the local residents, businessmen, oligarchs, friends of the government are characterized as strategic investors. In fact, the former foreign minister, with whom we talked about the Beleri case, has also been accused among them.”

Finally, Petros Beleris thanked the Greek society and the mass media for the “enormous support”. As he said, “this is one reason we are determined to go all the way and claim our rights. After all, we didn’t do anything, we won the elections for Mr. Rama, we managed to win. All we ask is to undertake the duties as prescribed by Albanian legislation. Nothing more”.

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