Ilaria Salis, an Italian antifascist
on trial in Hungary for attacking three neoNazis in Budapest
last year, has only one person to thank at the Italian embassy
after she obtained house arrest amid a row over how much credit
the Italian diplomatic service should get in her case, her
father said Monday.
"My daughter thanks the embassy because there is one person who
is going out of his way to help her in the day-to-day," Roberto
Salis said at a press conference at the Campidoglio by the
Green-Left Alliance (AVS) for which she is running in the
European elections, when he was asked about Foreign Minister
Antonio Tajani's claim that Salis was "campaigning against the
government" in alleging inaction on the part of the foreign and
justice ministries and attributing his daughter's release to
media and AVS pressure.
Salis also again criticised an Italian government suggestion
that his daughter should be registered on the roll of Italian
voters abroad, the AIRE, saying this would preclude her efforts
to be transferred to house arrest in Italy.
"Ilaria has been proposed to vote to enrol in the Aire in
Hungary," he said.
"It means losing the possibility of asking for house arrest in
Italy."
Salis said Thursday that Foreign Minister Tajani deserved no
credit after his daughter was granted house arrest.
Roberto Salis scoffed at Tajani claiming credit for his ministry
and the government, telling ANSA: "Tajani talks about the merits
of the embassy and the government, but he should tell me exactly
what these merits consist of because I don't know".
'The decision to appeal was solely the family's, it was not a
suggestion of the embassy nor of the foreign ministry, neither
advocated nor suggested by any institution.
"But if I knew what merits he was talking about, I would also be
publicly willing to thank both the ambassador and Tajani".
Tajani, for his part, said he did not respond to "polemics",
after telling the press he was "proud" of the government's
actions in the case.
In a newspaper interview Thursday, Tajani, who is also deputy
premier, said he was "proud of the work the government has done"
to secure house arrest for the 39-year-old Monza elementary
school teacher.
Salis's conditions of detention have sparked sharp protests from
Italy after she was repeatedly led into court on a chain with
her hands and ankles cuffed, a procedure Hungary says is
standard but which aroused indignation in Italy.
Roberto Salis had already said he had received no concrete
assistance from the Italian justice or foreign ministries in
securing his daughter's release from jail.
Tajani and Justice Minister Carlo Nordio had said that, while
they were willing to help in a case that saw Premier Giorgia
Meloni appeal to her friend and ally, Hungarian Prime Minister
Viktor Orban, the Hungarian judicial system was sovereign and
independent.
Hungary has been repeatedly rapped by the EU for rule of law
issues.
Salis, who was put up by the AVS in a bid to get the long-sought
house arrest, thanks to her possible immunity, saw her appeal
upheld by a second-instance Hungarian court on Wednesday.
Salis is accused of attempted murder for allegedly being part of
a German-led hammer gang that allegedly targeted three neo-Nazis
on their Day of Honour commemorating an SS regiment's "heroic"
resistance against the Red Army in February 2023.
The Hungarian prosecutor has asked for a prison term of 11 years
but Salis's father says she risks as long as 24 years in jail on
charges of attempted murder.
The alleged victims of her alleged attack did not reportedly
complain to police.
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