Diplomatic pressures are being exercised by Athens in order to enable the now “blue” MEP Freddy Beleris to be released from prison as soon as possible so that he can be at the European Parliament on July 16 to attend his swearing-in ceremony. One day after his election, which he himself celebrated from the prison cell in Albania, the Greek foreign minister, speaking about the Beleris case, spoke of an “absolute democratic requirement of the rule of law” which requires the elected MEPs to have the opportunity to swear. Emphasizing that the data so far “are not particularly encouraging”, Giorgos Gerapetritis estimated that from the hearing of the appeal – which as a process is about to start on Friday with a horizon of being completed by Tuesday, without being ruled out and clarified within 24 hours – a decision of European logic will emerge. “Albania wants to be part of the European family. It must also follow the European rules,” stressed the Greek Foreign Minister.
With time counting down to June 14, Greek diplomatic sources point out that if Freddy Beleris is not given the opportunity to be sworn in, as Albania is on a pre-accession trajectory, this could work very negatively for its European perspective. “Obviously, we will ask the European Parliament to do all the necessary actions to allow him to take the oath. Now, however, Beleris’ swearing-in is officially a European issue and this is also a success of his election” stress diplomatic sources from Athens.
At the same time, from Tirana, what diplomatic circles make clear is that after Freddy Beleris’ dismissal from the office of the elected mayor of Heimarra – which is almost certain to happen after the appeal is heard – and having now “disentangled” and typical of the case that continues to cause serious tremors in the bilateral relations between Greece and Albania, the Rama government will be able to deal with other pressing issues between the two countries, such as the settlement of the delimitation of maritime zones, as agreed in 2020, with submitting the dispute to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
“We are looking forward to the post-Beleris period to promote the resolution of other issues in Greek-Albanian relations” Albanian diplomatic sources say just 24 hours after the election of Freddy Beleris in the June 9 Euro election.
For now, as far as the outcome of the appeal is concerned, the scenario that wants to impose a sentence of 24 months on Freddy Belleris is judged to be the most prevailing, which means that he will remain in his cell until October 12 and for the first time in history he will have to install the European Parliament there special software so that he can take part in the votes. It is certainly possible that he will be sentenced to 20 months and within 10 days he can be released, as each day of the sentence he has already served counts as one and a half. In both cases, Rama is said to have to choose between two “bads”: in the first case he will look “bad” inside but get in trouble with the EU, while in the second he will look “good” on the outside but from within he will be accused of cowardice.
“I wish and hope that he will take the oath together with all the MEPs” Kyriakos Mitsotakis emphasized on the matter yesterday, who during a meeting he had at the Maximos Palace with the “blue” MEPs, chatting online with Freddy Beleris, allegedly at one point she said to him, “I see you have company”, meaning a prison guard who seemed to be coming and going, with him replying meaningfully “we’ll see you when she’s gone”.
#bra #fer #Beleris
2024-06-20 21:29:08