The lawyers of the 39-year-old teacher – who risks 24 years in prison in Hungary on charges of attacking right-wing extremists – say that an appeal to the ECHR is being considered. Meanwhile, the League announced in a note that in 2017 Salis ended up on trial for the attack on a party gazebo. But her lawyers point out that “she was acquitted for not having committed the crime”
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While Italian diplomacy moves to bring her back to Italy, an all-Italian controversy breaks out over Ilaria Salis – the 39-year-old Milanese teacher who has been detained in Budapest for almost a year, accused of attacking two right-wing extremists. The League announced that the woman, in 2017, ended up on trial for the attack on a party gazebo. And even if her lawyers point out that she was acquitted “for not having committed the crime”, Matteo Salvini attacks: “It is absurd that this Salis is a teacher in Italy. She cannot do that job” (ILARIA SALIS, WHO IS AND WHAT DID). Meanwhile, on the Hungarian front, to bring her home (where it is intended to make her serve house arrest) the possibility of immediately appealing to the European Court in Strasbourg is being considered, after the images of Salis in court in Budapest with handcuffs spread. on the wrists and feet bound by leather shackles with padlocks. Hungary ensures that it respects the rules protecting prisoners, but tension has now risen and the government breaks a months-long silence. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni heard from her counterpart Viktor Orbán about her case, “in full respect of the independence and autonomy of the Hungarian judiciary”, in a phone call that the father of the detained woman, Roberto Salis, defines as “a great news.” It then emerges that the Hungarian judges had already rejected a request for her transfer to Italy last June. The reason was the danger of escape. Now the minorities are asking for the prime minister to appear in the Chambers for information on the case.
Lega: “A dissent exercise cannot be violence”
In a statement, the League described the images of Salis chained in Hungary as “shocking”. However, he immediately added that the woman was involved together with “dozens of violent people from social centres” in the attack on a party gazebo in Monza, which took place on 18 February 2017. That day “the two girls present” were “attacked with insults and spit from a large group of troublemakers”. Salis went to trial for those facts. Her “vicissitudes”, continues the Northern League, “offer the opportunity to reiterate that the legitimate exercise of dissent can never lead to episodes of violence”.
Salvini: “She cannot work as a teacher”
The leader of the League Matteo Salvini, interviewed by The Republic, asks: “Does it seem normal to you that a primary school teacher goes around Europe, and now I also find myself in Italy, hitting and spitting on people?” Then, after specifying that “it is not acceptable” that in 2024 “one will go to court with shackles”, he adds: “If she is guilty she must pay. And if she committed the crime in Hungary she must be tried in Hungary. the left always tells us that we must respect the judiciary, so let’s respect the Hungarian judiciary too.” For Salvini she should therefore “without a doubt” be tried in Budapest. And she adds: “I repeat: does it seem normal to you that a primary school teacher goes around beating people up? I’m worried that 6-7 year old children are with such an individual. I don’t think she can work as a teacher. “.
Salis’s lawyer: “She was acquitted for assaulting Gazebo della Lega”
Lawyer Eugenio Losco responded to the League’s statements: for the attack on the gazebo Salis was “acquitted for not having committed the crime”. The lawyer specifies that “she was not identified at all by the two League militants” – as said by the Carroccio – “but only identified as a participant in the procession that took place that day in Monza from a video produced in the documents”. Despite the clarification, the League’s press office announces that “the lawyer Roberto Zingari is assisting one of the League militants attacked and insulted in Monza in 2017” and that “he is determined to promote actions and to use all the legal instruments to do full light on that episode of very serious political violence”, because “physical aggression, insults and spitting on a girl cannot go unpunished”. Salis’ lawyer responds to this too: “The League was the offended party and could have appeared in court as a civil party but did not do so. It was the prosecutor himself who asked for acquittal and therefore did not appeal when the judge all the accused were acquitted, including Ilaria Salis”. And then, he added, “in addition to the two militants, Federico Arena, secretary of the League of Monza, also testified, and therefore the trial was widely known to the League, which in any case did not take a civil action”.
Schlein: “Lega puts more chains on Salis”
Dem secretary Elly Schlein is critical of the League: “Instead of fighting to avoid seeing the dignity of an Italian citizen trampled upon, she starts rummaging through her past, even before the sentence is pronounced she has already decided guilt, and puts more chains on her wrists and at the ankles of Ilaria Salis, recalling accusations on which she has already been acquitted”. The PD leader speaks of “nostalgia for the Middle Ages, where the presumption of innocence disappears” and accuses Salvini of “statements of unbearable paternalism”. And she adds: “If you maintain that someone accused of assault cannot be a teacher, you have to ask how someone accused of kidnapping can be a minister.”
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Ilaria Salis, work by Laika in front of the Hungarian embassy in Rome
The petition to bring Salis back to Italy
Meanwhile, the online petition launched on Change.org by the “Free Ilaria Salis Committee” has exceeded 100 thousand signatures in a few hours: the government and the President of the Human Rights Commission of the European Parliament are asked to get moving to bring Salis back to Italy .
La Russa: “Excessive attribution”
The President of the Senate Ignazio La Russa raised his tone regarding the Hungarian affair, according to which Salis’s indictment in Hungary (who risks up to 24 years in prison) is “excessive” and according to which “it is right to intervene” due to the fact that Budapest did not respect the rules that prohibit “the display of the prisoner in handcuffs and in conditions of humiliation”.
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Ilaria Salis on trial in Hungary: in the courtroom with her hands and feet tied
Storm over Lollobrigida’s words: “I haven’t seen the photos of Ilaria Salis”
The words of Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida then become a coincidence, who – perhaps – to avoid getting entangled in the issue, says he “has not seen the images” of Salis in the courtroom in Budapest. Photos that made the rounds on every social network and every media: “Everyone saw them except him, an unworthy thing”, commented the dem leader Elly Schlein. Other statements by members of the majority (within the League) were also not appreciated. “We are sorry for the treatment reserved for Ilaria Salis and we hope she will be able to prove her innocence. But each country punishes as it wants and it is not up to me to judge what is done in other countries”, said the deputy secretary of the Northern League Andrea Crippa. The former Northern League undersecretary Rossano Sasso instead points out that, if Salis were found guilty, “it will be it is necessary to remove her from the ministerial rankings”. Then the hope is that the Hungarian judges “can confirm that our children will not risk finding a troublemaker in class”.
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Ilaria Salis, the father: “Treated like an animal in Hungary”
What happens now
The hearing for Salis has been adjourned until May 24th. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani makes it known that one of the paths that will be taken is to push to bring Salis to Italy, where he will serve his house arrest. Tajani then declared that “our ambassador asked the Hungarian Minister of Justice to ask the Attorney General to evaluate the conditions of Ilaria Salis’ detention and to report back to him promptly”. He expects an answer.
Roberto Salis’ accusations
Roberto Salis responded to the accusations of those who linked his daughter’s name to the ‘Hammerbande’, German gangs that target neo-Nazi militants, branding them as “attempts to discredit my daughter’s actions”. And he claims that the Italian embassy was at aware for months of the conditions of detention – chains on the wrists and ankles – to which his daughter was subjected. Tajani denied: “I had never been informed of this before”, he explained, adding that “consular visits have always been made and all the things she asked for were brought to the prisoner.”
Roberto Salis: “Removing my daughter from an unsustainable situation”
In an interview with The Republic, Roberto Salis talks about his meeting with the Italian ambassador in Budapest. It took 11 months to see it. “Evidently since last February he has had more demanding commitments than taking care of my daughter,” Salis said. Together, he added, “we have studied a plan to try to bring her home which will have to be validated by the Ministers of Justice and Foreign Affairs”. And he asks “that the plan take into utmost consideration the protection of the safety of Ilaria and her family”, also because “on Monday there were four neo-Nazis in the trial room” and it is well established “that there are channels of communication between Hungarian Nazis , Germans and Italians: one of their blogs published my daughter’s name, photo and address.” The short-term objective, however, is “to remove her from an unsustainable situation and then carry out the trial in humane conditions”: you mention “torture, humiliation and pressure to make her confess something”.
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Ilaria Salis, who she is and why she has been detained for 11 months in Hungary
ITALIANS IN CELL ABROAD
From Ilaria Salis in Hungary to Filippo Mosca in Romania. There are several recent cases of Italians detained in prison abroad. For some of them, like Ilaria De Rosa and Alessia Piperno, release came after months in prison. Here are some of their stories Go to the photo gallery
ILARIA SALT/1
Ilaria Salis is a 39-year-old from Milan who has been in prison in Budapest for almost a year: she is accused of attacking two right-wing extremists in the Hungarian capital. Yesterday, January 29, there was a hearing in the trial and the woman remained in the courtroom in chains for three and a half hours. “My daughter is treated like an animal,” said her father Roberto. The hearing has been adjourned to May 24: he risks up to 24 years in prison Go to the photo gallery
ILARIA SALIS/2
Ilaria Salis, according to the accusations, participated in multiple attacks causing aggravated bodily harm, in “criminal association” with two people, and was part of a left-wing extremist organization. She has pleaded not guilty. A German co-defendant instead pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 3 years in prison. Salis’s lawyer said that “Ilaria explained that she had never been able to read her documents, which were not translated to her, and that she had not seen the images on which she essentially bases the accusation” Go to the photo gallery