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Italian authorities said Wednesday that an Italian anti-fascist activist is being held in a Hungarian prison after images of a chained and shackled woman at a court hearing in Budapest sparked outrage in the Mediterranean country this week. They intensified their protests over their treatment.
Police arrested Ilaria Saris in the Hungarian capital Budapest last year on suspicion of involvement in an assault on participants in the Hungarian Day of Honor commemoration. The event is held annually on February 11, and far-right activists commemorate the failed attempt by Nazis and their Hungarian allies to escape Budapest during the Red Army’s siege of the city in 1945.
Hungarian prosecutors had asked for 11 years in prison if Salisu was convicted.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spoke with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán about Salisu’s detention on Wednesday, the Hungarian leader’s media director Bertalan Habashi told local news site telex.hu.
Earlier this week, Italy’s foreign ministry summoned Hungary’s deputy ambassador to lodge a formal protest after Saris appeared in court with his wrists and ankles bound and his movements restricted by chains.
In a statement, the ministry recalled European and international law calling for the need to respect the dignity of prisoners, “including the manner in which defendants are brought to court and the guarantee of a fair trial.”
Specifically, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requires alternatives to pre-trial detention, such as house arrest, that the indictment be translated into Italian, and that lawyers have access to videos of the alleged incident so that Saris can mount a defense. I asked him to do so.
However, the incident is a sensitive issue for the far-right-led Meloni government, which has built a friendly relationship with Prime Minister Orban.
But Salis’ fate resonates with ordinary Italians and the media. On Wednesday, street artist Laika unveiled his latest work on a wall near the Hungarian Embassy in Rome. The piece is a statue of a woman with the words “Resist” written on her dress, hanging in chains like Christ.
Senate President Ignazio La Russa, a member of Meloni’s Italian Brotherhood party, said Italian law “forbids prisoners from being handcuffed and displayed in humiliating conditions, but this is not the case in Hungary.” ” he said.
In his comments to RAI, La Russa called for further government intervention, taking into account the need to “not humiliate prisoners and respect their dignity even when detained for serious crimes.” Ta.
Even before this week’s court footage hit the front pages of Italian newspapers, Saris’ case and prison conditions had been raised by left-wing lawmakers in the European Parliament. They cited news reports that she was tied around her neck in her cell, which was infested with rats and cockroaches.
“The conditions in Hungary’s prisons have been documented and criticized by the European Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe’s Committee against Torture,” he said, referring to calls for EU intervention by members of Italy’s Social Democratic Union.