Ilaria Salis accused of attacking alleged members of a prohibited movement in Hungary will stand trial in a Budapest court.
An Italian “anti-fascist” activist, Ilaria Salis, 39, is due to appear in court on Friday, May 24, in a case that sparked tensions between Rome and Budapest, according to Euractiv. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni maintains a warm relationship with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán.
However, the case of an attack on extremely national-oriented people caused bilateral tensions as Rome filed formal complaints on behalf of Salis.
The teacher from the Italian city of Monza was arrested in Budapest in February last year. Prosecutors claimed she travelled to Budapest specifically to attack “unsuspecting victims identified as or perceived as far-right sympathisers” to deter “representatives of the far-right movement”.
She faced accusations in an attempted assault and participating in a far-left criminal organisation following a counter-demonstration against an annual so-called “neo-Nazi rally.”
Unexpected decision
Salis faces up to 11 years in prison, but she denies the charges, stating that she faces persecution for her political beliefs.
One of the victims and witnesses to one of the attacks is due to testify on Friday, according to one of Salis’s Hungarian legal representatives. However, lawyer Gyorgy Magyar already complained to AFP news agency before the trial that Salis had not yet received all the case documents in “her native language.”
The translators promised to finish translating the documents in November, but until that (is done) she will not give any substantial testimony, and rightfully so.
Salis spent more than 15 months behind bars but was moved to house arrest on Thursday on a bail of 16 million forints (about 41,000 euros), according to her father Roberto Salis. Earlier, he accused Hungarian authorities of double standards.
In this country, those people are considered patriots while anti-fascists are enemies of the state. For eight days, she was kept in a prison in a solitary cell, without being provided with toilet paper, sanitary towels, and soap. During that period, she would have needed the sanitary towels… in Italy, we would consider this torture.
However, she could be released pending any verdict in her case if she is elected as a member of the European Parliament. Last month, the Italian Green and Left Alliance (AVS) nominated her as its main candidate in the upcoming European elections. Thus, if Salis wins enough electoral votes, she could have access to parliamentary immunity. This would lead to the suspension of the criminal case against her.
Hungary’s overcrowded prisons
The Council of Europe recently criticised Hungary’s overcrowded prisons. According to Eurostat, Hungary had the highest rate of prisoners per 100,000 people in the EU in 2022. At the same time, Orbán’s government has repeatedly condemned the media for allegedly portraying Salis as a “martyr.” Orbán’s chief of staff Gergely Gulyas stated:
What we see here, in a quite outrageous case, is someone committing a brutal and public crime, and the European far-left is standing up for her and even trying to make her an MEP. It is incompatible with everything we see as European values, human decency and the necessity of punishing crimes.
Meanwhile, Italy’s former PM and head of the 5-Star Movement (M5S), Giuseppe Conte, has again criticised the Italian government led by Meloni. In a post on X social platform, he accused the Italian authorities of inciting war rhetoric, calling on them to stop fuelling military sentiment in Italy.
This is the situation. And there are those who propose putting helmets on our kids’ heads. We must raise our voices and use the pencil in June to avoid the Third World War, to give them a future. (…) We found ourselves alone in opposing this crazy strategy with choices, votes, taking insults because we ask that Europe and Italy be protagonists of a historic effort for peace negotiations.
