Alfred Beleri, a former ethnic Greek mayor of a southern Albanian town, was released ahead of time on Monday, following imprisonment on vote-buying charges, in a case that has strained relations between Greece and Albania. He is currently on probation.

His lawyer stated that the court agreed to their request for Beleri to be released six weeks earlier and indirectly accused the government that Beleri was arrested right after early elections were held in the Albanian town of Himarë. Following his release, Beleri said there are no legitimate elections in Albania and that democracy does not function, remarking that he will rerun for mayor if he wins his case in Strasbourg.

In July, the Central Election Commission (CEC) removed Beleri from his mayoral seat, citing that people convicted of certain crimes are prohibited from holding public office under the decriminalization law.

CEC called for early elections in Himarë, which were won by the ruling Socialist Party’s candidate Vangjel Tavo. Beleri won the previous election in May 2023 as the opposition’s candidate but was prevented from swearing his oath after being arrested and sentenced to two years in prison on election corruption charges, prompting his removal from office.

Since his arrest in 2023 and the call for early elections in CEC, the relations between Greece and Albania have been strained, with Athens citing concerns regarding “the deprivation of the presumption of innocence, the integrity of the evidentiary process, the prohibition of swearing-in, and the disproportionate sentence imposed,” as well as the fact that the Municipality of Himarë has been governed for a year by unauthorized individuals.

The prime minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitotakis, has continually threatened in 2023 to block EU integration of Albania. He says that resolving the issue of Beleri’s case is necessary to start Albania’s accession negotiations with the EU.

Beleri’s arrest was widely perceived as politically motivated, driven by business interests within the seaside hotel industry, and possibly intended to secure land for government-aligned partners. Following his imprisonment, Beleri was elected to the European Parliament as a member of the Greek ruling party “New Democracy” and under the umbrella of the center-right European People’s Party. In July, Albania’s authorities allowed him to be sworn in as an MEP.