ATHENS

Greece’s ruling New Democracy (ND) party announced Monday that it has nominated Fredi Beleri, a jailed Greek minority politician in Albania, as its candidate for European Parliament elections that will take place from June 6-9.

Beleri, a candidate for mayor in Himare, an Albanian coastal city mainly populated by ethnic Greeks, was arrested on May 12 last year.

He was charged with trying to buy votes ahead of local polls on May 14 which resulted in him being elected.

This March, an Albanian court sentenced Beleri to two years in prison for election fraud.

His arrest had strained relations between Tirana and Athens.

Some Albanian and Greek news outlets and newspapers also said that Beleri was involved in a terrorist attack on an Albanian border post in 1994 which claimed the lives of two Albanian soldiers as part of the far-right MAVI terror group.