“Unfortunately, the Albanian side is showing intransigence – Detention is unfair and illegal” says Freddy Beleri’s brother

For the brother’s “illegal and unfair” detention, as he pointed out by Freddy Belleris Leonardo Beleris spoke on Thursday morning (11/30). “Unfortunately, the Albanian side shows intransigence” underlined.

During his interview on the ERT show “Syndeses” with Costas Papachliminzos and Christida Vidou, the brother of Freddy Beleris, Leonardos Beleris said: “It is something expected, it had to be done. Greece did what every democratic country has the right to do. Germany would do the same for a German citizen, so would any other European country. Unfortunately, from the Albanian side, seven months have passed. They show an intransigence, they show persistence. We don’t know why. I would say that after the hearing that took place in the court where the two key witnesses testified, the first key witness, who admitted that there is an issue of financing, that he had been financed by the black funds of the Albanian police. Subsequently, this was confirmed by the police commander, who has organized and built this whole scheme”.

“The case starts from the first day”

“In another democratic and rule of law country, the court would have ended at the same time. The second witness was a police commander and the third witness, who is the brother of the first witness, did not appear. He had given two statements. He gave the first statement on the day my brother was arrested, where he stated that he did not know him. It has nothing to do with him or his family, that his younger brother was involved. He testified what he knew after a month, after pressure from the Albanian police, he went and gave a supplementary statement where he denied everything else and said that he was threatened by Beleris, which is not true because his first statement was the following day, that is, the same day. This witness has not yet been examined. At the moment we are waiting to have him on Tuesday the day after tomorrow after the court,” he noted.

Answering the question why they do not find this witness, Leonard Beleris said: “The same services of Albania, one service shows that it is outside the territory of Albania and the other shows that it is inside. What can we say now? Look, this case has been going on since day one. We won’t stick to the witness now if they can make him disappear. something. If he comes to court, he is sure to run into contradictions. In other words, his non-appearance in court is deliberate.”

Regarding his brother’s hooded presence in court and wearing bulletproof vests, he commented: “That’s the picture in that cage. The court is held in the same room. There is a glass which I think is bullet proof. He has a microphone inside that communicates with the judges, with his lawyers and that’s the picture.”

For who is acting as mayor in Heimarra, Leonard Beleris replied: “The former mayor has been in charge of Heimarra for seven months, He is the one who has lost. This is for a Guinness World Record. He is Mr. Rama’s chosen one, the mayor is the one who was against my brother. He’s the one who lost. This person is a very suspicious person. He lived and lived in Greece for several years. The Albanian secret services recruited him, took him, put him in key positions. There he was elected mayor three times and on all three occasions there was theft and tampering at the polls. In other words, they imposed him three times as mayor and now they are going to impose him for the fourth time. Unfortunately in Himarra when elections are held we have a war and we don’t have a celebration like here”.

Leonard Beleris also spoke about the census, saying: “The census ended badly. I have not been registered, members of my family who live there permanently, have not been registered. In the Province of Heimarra and especially in the villages of Heimarra, the percentage of Greeks is very large. They know who is of Greek origin. They know that everyone will testify and they went selectively and did the census. They went coming from there go to the workers who are there and working. One thing I wanted to say about the census, from the first day, from the same time that the census was taking place, the intelligence services of Albania had access to this software and they were seeing the results of the census. At the moment the census has ended and they say they will announce it after 7-8 months from the moment it is online and at the same time the census closed, at the same time we have the result. Why don’t they announce it and they want 7-8 months to announce it”.

“He is being held unjustly, illegally. This has been proven”

“What I have to say is that the Greek government must insist on this issue. I would say after the court hearing that I told you about, that now the Greek government and the European Union in general should not limit ourselves to swearing in a mayor Freddy Beleris. We must also insist on his acquittal. He has been detained for 7 months, unjustly, illegally. This has been proven. When you see the police together with false witnesses, they have set up a case, we must also insist on his release. In the previous conversations and interviews they have done, I was cautious. I respected what they said from the Albanian side, there are videos, there are evidences and various Albanian ministers were pointing the finger at us in various forums and in various meetings they had with their Greek counterparts they were pointing the finger “there are evidences, there are videos”. Unfortunately there is nothing, there is a testimony from a criminal, who has two convictions for fraud, for theft, for robbery by a man who is addicted to substances.

In her response from Brussels for ERT, Irini Zarkadoula, reports on this issue: “There are countries that believe it is a bilateral issue and tells you that you have to look at other parts that must be met, other conditions that must be met by the member states that are candidates, the states that are candidates to join the European Union and that this is not one of them, it is a bilateral issue. Of course, in the past, when we talk about bilateral issues between Croatia and Slovenia, there was an issue with bees. If we put it in the same sack, for example, it is probably completely different, or with fish in other countries.

That is why I am telling these two examples. That is, each country can talk about bilateral issues or interests, but here it has to do with the rule of law. And what Greece emphasizes is that it has the right under the law in Albania to be sworn in as mayor even in prison. And this is what he is seeking and that is why he is putting pressure on the European Union so that this is understood. In other words, there were also reactions from Albania, last summer, when the letter was sent by Mr. Schinas to the competent Commissioner for Enlargement, because it was considered that it had taken on a much larger dimension.”

For his part, Leonardos Beleris commented in closing: “This has nothing to do, it is not a matter of Greece-Albania. We are talking about a clear violation of human rights. Any other country would do the same for one of its own citizens. It has nothing to do with the Greece-Albania dispute. Here we had the resolution from the European Parliament we had from the European People’s Party. We had from various forums and various associations, European associations of lawyers. We are talking about a violation of human rights.”