Greece’s governing conservative party has added a convicted politician from Albania’s ethnic Greek minority to its list of candidates for the upcoming European Parliament election, further escalating tensions between the two countries.
Fredi Beleris, who was elected mayor of the town of Himare in southern Albania last year, was arrested on vote-buying charges and subsequently handed a two-year sentence in March. Despite denying the charges against him, Greece’s government criticized his pre-trial detention as unfair and even threatened to block Albania's EU membership bid.
