Brussels – The case of Ilaria Salis, an Italian citizen who has been held in Hungarian jails for a year and appeared Monday (Jan. 29) in the courtroom in Budapest in chains, reaches the highest level, that is, the prime ministers of their respective countries, Giorgia Meloni and Viktor Orbán. “I have provided President Meloni with all the details,” the Hungarian premier disclosed in the night between yesterday and today (January 31-February 1), after a bilateral meeting with his Italian counterpart before today’s extraordinary European Council: “I promise that fair treatment will be provided, that all rights will be guaranteed.”
In a country that has long been in the spotlight in Brussels for violations of the rule of law—particularly on the issue of judicial independence—Orbán’s words on the Salis case jar with reality. “I have made it clear that in the Hungarian system, prosecutors do not belong to the government, but to the parliament, so I cannot influence them at all,” the Hungarian leader cleared himself when speaking to the press, reiterating that “the judiciary is totally independent of the government.” What Orbán wanted to provide reassurance on to Meloni is “the environment of the detainee, that’s where I have legitimate influence to ensure that fair treatment should be provided.” The Hungarian prime minister himself, however, objected to the accusations of isolation of Salis: “I put together the whole story of Ilaria Salis and about her condition, how she managed to make calls and how it is not correct to say that she was cut off from the world.”
The most serious issue in the Salis case concerns the fact that the detainee appeared in court with cuffs on her wrists and ankles, held between officers in bulletproof vests and balaclavas with a chain tied around her waist. She is charged with assault and injuries judged to be fatal (in conjunction with other youths) to two neo-Nazi militants during a demonstration on Feb. 11—the “Day of Honor”—although the victims of the attack did not even press charges. The Hungarian judiciary held her in a very harsh prison, with poor hygienic conditions and with the trial documents only in Hungarian. She faces a sentence of more than 20 years in prison.
From left: the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and her Hungarian counterpart, Viktor Orbán (Jan. 31, 2024)
The deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, had asked the Hungarian government to “watch and intervene so that the rights of Italian citizen Ilaria Salis, detained awaiting trial, are respected under EU regulations.” Lega Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini, making a point with the press yesterday at the EU Parliament, recalled that “it is not acceptable that in 2024 we go to court in shackles.” Still, he did not spare an attack on the detainee: “If she is guilty she must pay, and if the crime was committed in Hungary she must be tried in Hungary,” adding that “it would not be acceptable for her to be a schoolteacher.”
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
