Ilaria Salis in the court in Budapest on March 28, 2024
Image: AFP
A Milanese teacher is said to have critically injured suspected neo-Nazis in Budapest with German left-wing extremists in 2023. She has been in custody in Hungary for 13 months. Now Italy's president is getting involved.
IItaly's President has spoken out in the case of a Milan primary school teacher who is facing a long prison sentence in Hungary because she is said to have critically injured alleged participants in a neo-Nazi march. The Hungarian authorities accuse Ilaria Salis of attacking several people with striking instruments together with German left-wing extremists in February 2023. The anti-fascist activist has been in pre-trial detention in Hungary for a good 13 months, under conditions that she herself describes as inhumane.
Hungary is also making allegations against another Italian in connection with the incident in Budapest. But unlike Salis, Gabriele Marchesi is in Italy – and according to a decision by the Italian judiciary, cannot be transferred to Hungary. There he faces “the real risk of inhumane and degrading treatment.”