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Budapest court on Thursday he rejected the request for house arrest for Ilaria Salis, the Italian woman imprisoned in Hungary for more than a year on charges of attacking some neo-Nazis. Salis, who under Hungarian law risks up to 16 years for charges deemed laughable, will therefore continue to remain in prison: according to the judge, Jozsef Sós, “the circumstances have not changed” and “there is always the danger of escape”.
As had also happened at the end of January, Salis was brought to the courtroom for the hearing with her hands and feet chained, accompanied by a guard who held her with a chain tied to her abdomen with a sort of belt. The affair concerning her has now become a political case in Europe. The next trial hearing has been set for May 24.
Budapest. Ilaria Salis
More chains and shackles. pic.twitter.com/qnl1gMhtkL— Niccolo Zancan (@NiccoloZancan) March 28, 2024
The envoy of Republic Giuliano Foschini he said that before the hearing, outside the court, some neo-Nazis insulted and threatened Salis’ interpreter, his lawyer Eugenio Losco and a group of his supporters who arrived from Italy, including the cartoonist Zerocalcare, pseudonym of Michele Rech, who he has been following his case for some time and is reporting on it in a weekly column in the magazine International. Niccolò Zancan, correspondent of the Press, showed on A delegation of parliamentarians from Italian opposition parties is also present in the chamber.
(REUTERS/ Bernadett Szabo)
Hungary is a semi-authoritarian country led since 2010 by far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who over the years has dismantled the judicial system without caring about respecting the human rights of accused and detained people. At the same time, however, the country is part of the European Union and Orbán’s government is an important ally of Giorgia Meloni’s in the European context.
After a year of substantial inactivity, at the end of January the Italian government finally began to take an interest in Salis’ case: the Hungarian government, however, seems firm on its positions.
(ANSA/ Enrico Martinelli)
In recent weeks, Salis’ lawyers had asked the Italian government to pressure Hungary to grant her house arrest in Italy, or in the Italian embassy in Budapest; they had also requested that the government provide Hungary with a guarantee document, an official note, that the precautionary measures in Italy would be applied to Salis. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Justice Minister Carlo Nordio have made it known that house arrest in the embassy is not possible, for technical and legal reasons, while putting pressure on Hungary would be “irritual and inadmissible”.
Shortly before the second hearing in Ilaria Salis’ trial in Budapest, a group of right-wing extremists attacked Salis’ lawyers and friends as they arrived at the court. “Shut up or I’ll break your head,” is what one of the Milanese teacher’s friends was heard saying. “There… pic.twitter.com/ThdLB0VcEV
— La Stampa (@LaStampa) March 28, 2024
The Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and the government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs, however, harshly criticized the story being told about the case in the Italian media and the Italian government’s attempts at mediation. At the end of February, at the end of a meeting with Tajani in Rome, Szijjártó complained that Italy was trying “to interfere with a Hungarian judicial case”.
Inhuman and degrading treatment. This chain is. #IlariaSalis couldn’t hurt a fly or escape in any way from this courtroom a #Budapest: we ourselves can barely move, given the crowd that is crowded in here.
If the accused is attached to a… pic.twitter.com/yc2qrgIYqJ— Ivan Scalfarotto 🇮🇹🇪🇺🇺🇦 (@ivanscalfarotto) March 28, 2024
Ilaria Salis, 39 years old, anti-fascist, is accused together with other people of having attacked neo-Nazis between 9 and 12 February 2023 in Budapest, in the days in which thousands of far-right militants from all over Europe were in Hungary to celebrate the Day of honor (Day of honor). The event, which takes place every year with parades, concerts and events organized in different parts of the city, celebrates a Nazi battalion that in 1945 attempted to prevent the siege of Budapest by the Red Army. For two years the Hungarian police have not authorized parades due to the danger of clashes and public disorder, but some smaller celebrations and marches are still tolerated.
Between 9 and 12 February 2023, several Hungarian and foreign neo-Nazi militants who were in the city for the demonstration were attacked in the street by a group of people with their faces covered and some incidents were also I resumed from the security cameras of shops in the area. A few days later the Hungarian authorities had arrested some German anti-fascist militants and Salis, who in addition to being accused of assault is accused of being part of a left-wing extremist organization that allegedly planned attacks against far-right militants.
Salis, who has denounced the terrible conditions of his detention in some letters, declares himself innocent: he says he participated in peaceful counter-demonstrations that were held during the day but that he did not attack anyone. The other two people indicted besides her were a German woman and a man. The first has been sent to trial and she has already attended a hearing in Budapest, but she is in pre-trial detention in Berlin and her trial will begin on May 24; the second instead pleaded guilty at the end of January and was sentenced to three years in prison.
(REUTERS/ Bernadett Szabo)
– Read also: Hungary is raising the tone on the case of Ilaria Salis