TIRANA, Albania – After 16 months in an Albanian jail after being convicted on what he said were false charges of buying votes in winning the Mayor’s race for the seaside town of Himare, ethnic Greek Fredi Beleri was given an early release on his fourth appeal.

That followed intense pressure from Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis who said Greece could otherwise block Albania’s hopes of joining the European Union, already in jeopardy over that country’s record of corruption.

Beleri was also elected as a Member of the European Parliament on the ticket of Mitsotakis’ New Democracy Conservatives, turning up the heat on Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama who Beleri said wanted him jailed to benefit business associates.

Himare is a growing popular tourism site, as is Albania’s coast which is far cheaper than Greece and other destinations in Europe and Beleri said Rama wanted to control that through business allies.

The only condition of his release is that he must check in with local police by phone on a regular basis but the release was only about six weeks early as his sentence was due to end on Oct. 14, allowing Rama to claim the mayor was being released.