Greeks condemn the case against the Albanian mayor-elect as political.

"Athens, Greece - Greece threatens to hinder Albania's progress towards membership in the European Union, even as the EU seeks to give greater urgency to the protracted process of accession for the Western Balkans. The reason is the arrest on May11th of an ethnic Greek, a candidate for mayor of Himara, a sleepy town on the Adriatic coast with a large Greek population."

"This decision will have an impact on the EU's relationship with Albania, which depends on... European rules and the rule of law", said the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said last month that the issue "overshadows" relations with Albania and "destroys" all the progress that has been made. In recent weeks, he visited Albania, and his Albanian counterpart Edi Rama held an exhibition of his work in Athens.

Fredi Beleri was elected mayor while in prison, but was not allowed to take office as the Albanian courts rejected five applications for his release or permission to take the oath while in detention.

Beleri, who won by a margin of 19 votes, is accused of buying eight of them, and the courts claim that he may attempt to interfere with the work of the prosecutors, his lawyer stated.

His case is being heard in court on Thursday.

Belery declared his innocence. His son Petros Belery stated that his arrest had political motives.

“This scared people, especially in the ethnically Albanian villages that are quite far from the city of Himara,” said Petros Beleri. “People were afraid and voted for Rama’s candidate. More than 1,000 votes were lost this way. The Prime Minister knew he would suffer a major defeat in Himara... the message people received was: ‘I rule in Himara, and those who disagree will be treated the same way,’” said Petros Beleri.

Former Justice Minister Ilir Meta agreed, calling the arrest "a blatant interference in free elections." Former Prime Minister Sali Berisha, whose opposition Democratic Party supported Beleri, referred to him as a "political prisoner."

The Council of Europe also expressed its concern over the ongoing detention of Belery, stating that it contradicts the presumption of innocence.

Rama showed a personal interest in the elections in Himara. A week before the voting, he spoke in support of the socialist incumbent Yorgo Goro and condemned Beleri.

“In his speech, there was a whole section where he called [Beleri] illiterate, ugly, stupid, a representative of Greece, and unworthy of his position in Albania,” said Theodoros Gumas, president of the Albanian Greek Union of Himara.

The leader of the Beleri party stated that Rama's interest in keeping the municipality under socialist control is related to land.

“All these years, Himara has been subjected to aggression from politicians who want to dismantle the land ownership structure of people who are clients of the Prime Minister and represent his interests. This is a strategic goal for them,” said Vangelis Dules, leader of the Omonoia party, which stands for the Democratic Union of the Greek Minority.

Himara is one of two municipalities with a predominantly Greek population and covers 60 km (37 miles) of one of the most picturesque coastlines in Albania. Rama's hopes for Albania's prosperity largely depend on the development of tourism, and much of the coastal real estate where this can happen belongs to ethnic Greek Albanians.

"Billions are at stake here," said Petros Beleri. "Rama's clients have seized vast estates and built resorts."

Rama refused to give an interview for this article, saying he is "fed up" with this nonsense. "Albania is not the Soviet Union, and [Beleri] is not [the late Russian writer Alexander] Solzhenitsyn, but a guy under arrest on corruption charges in a democratic country," Rama wrote to Al Jazeera.

Rama stated that the judicial system operates independently. "I learned about his arrest when the operation was already underway," he told the Kathimerini newspaper in August of last year.

Some land ownership issues trace back to the communist regime that ruled Albania from 1945 to 1991. The communists nationalized all land after World War II. Just before their collapse, they redistributed it.

“There was a division of land for cultivation. So if you had, say, half a hectare [before the war], you didn’t get all of it back. You got a little, and the rest went to your neighbors,” Gumas said. “This is how the land was redistributed in the property documents issued by the Communist Party in 1991, and this forms the basis of all modern land claims.”

The Albanian ombudsman, an independent body, stated in its report for this year that the government still owes former landowners from the pre-communist period 860 million euros ($912 million) for confiscated and redistributed land.

Even these property titles from 1991 were not fully respected by post-communist governments due to lost documents, disputes, land raiders, and corrupt officials.

In 2020, Rama passed Law 20, promising to address these issues.

"The law states that if people present their documents proving ownership, their property will be registered in the land registry. There have been 8,000 applications [in Himara]," said Dules, most of them from Greeks. "Three years later, only 30 have been approved." Only five of them belong to ethnic Greeks.

The European Commission pointed out issues with land registration in its 2022 report on Albania. "It is estimated that about 80% of the data on registered real estate is incorrect," the report states.

Property issues are not the only obstacle to tourism development. Another problem is land use.

Communist documents on property rights issued in 1991 allowed land to be used only for agricultural purposes. The planning office in Vlorë theoretically has the authority to change land use for construction, but in practice, this has only been permitted for strategic investors approved by Rama's cabinet.

"The mayor has very little he can do when it comes to strategic investors, but even this little irritates Rama, because the mayor can bring transparency, demand explanations, and call for judicial reviews," Dules said.

This could lead to judicial investigations that are uncomfortable for the socialists. Beleri has already filed a lawsuit against the government regarding the granting of strategic investor status to the husband of a cabinet member, former Foreign Minister Olta Haki.

In addition to questionable land deals, Dulles believes there is an anti-Greek agenda.

“There is no declared plan for ethnic cleansing that can be proven, but when someone does not have the opportunity to own their property, develop it, and choose their representative, doesn’t that lead to an exodus?” said Dulles.