Albanian court jails Greek mayor amid long-running tensions with Athens

An Albanian court jailed an elected mayor from the Greek minority for two years for election fraud on Tuesday, a sentence likely to raise tensions with neighbouring Greece that has warned of a possible impact on Albania’s bid to join the EU. Dhionisios Alfred Beleri was arrested in May 2023 and accused of buying votes during a mayoral election campaign in the southern coastal town of Himara. The Special Court for Corruption and Organised Crime ruled that Beleri “committed the criminal offence of active corruption during elections … to be punished with two years of imprisonment.”