ROME (AP) — The Hungarian government Wednesday defended its treatment of an Italian antifascist activist being held in a Hungarian jail, after images of her chained and shackled at a Budapest court hearing sparked official protests by the Italian government.
Police arrested Ilaria Salis in the Hungarian capital last year after she was suspected of involvement in assaults against participants in Hungary’s Day of Honor commemoration. The event takes place on Feb. 11 each year, with far-right activists marking the failed attempt by Nazi and allied Hungarian soldiers to break out of Budapest during the Red Army’s siege of the city in 1945.
Hungarian government spokesman Zoltán Kovács blasted media coverage of the Salis case, which he said was an “orchestrated, leftist attack aimed at destroying good Hungary-Italy political relations.”
Hungarian prosecutors have requested 11 years in prison if Salis is convicted.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni spoke about Salis’ detention with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Wednesday, the Hungarian leader’s press chief Bertalan Havasi told local news site telex.hu.
Earlier in the week, the Italian Foreign Ministry summoned the Hungarian deputy ambassador to formally protest, after Salis appeared in court with her wrists and ankles shackled, and chains limiting her movement.
In a statement, the ministry recalled European and international law, which calls for the need to respect the dignity of prisoners “including the way in which defendants are transferred to court and the guarantees of a fair trial.”
Specifically, the foreign ministry requested alternatives to pre-trial detention, such as house arrest, and called for the indictment to be translated into Italian and for Salis’ attorneys to have access to a video of the alleged incidents so she can mount a defense.
Late on Tuesday, the Hungarian government pushed back, saying Salis’ treatment was commensurate with the gravity of the charges she faces: being a member of a criminal organization and attempted bodily harm, endangering life.
In a statement on social media, Kovács insisted that Salis’ prison conditions met all EU norms — in terms of meals, dignity, health care and hygiene — and that she had been provided with translators.
“Sure, she was restrained in the courtroom, and yes, she had already spent 11 months detained,” he said in the statement. “But ‘inhumane’? Not really, no. Taken seriously due to the severity of the crime she’s charged with? More likely.”
The statement didn’t address claims by he Italian foreign ministry that Salis had not been provided with access to video footage in which she was alleged to appear engaged in the assault.
The case is delicate for the far-right-led government of Meloni, who has forged friendly ties with Orbán.
But Salis’ fate has resonated with ordinary Italians and in the media. On Wednesday, street artist Laika unveiled his latest work on a wall near Hungary’s embassy in Rome: an image of a woman hanging Christ-like in chains with the words “Ila Resist” written on her dress.
The Hungarian government statement reprinted a photo of the mural with a “Fake News” stamp over it.
Senate President Ignazio La Russa, who is a member of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, said that Italian law “prohibits inmates from being exhibited with handcuffs and in conditions of humiliation, whereas this isn’t the case in Hungary.”
In comments to RAI, La Russa called on the government to intervene further, given the need “to not humiliate the inmate and respect the dignity of the person even when detained for serious crimes.”
Even before this week’s courtroom images made front pages in Italian newspapers, Salis’ case and her prison conditions had been raised at the European Parliament by left-leaning lawmakers. They cited news reports that she was being bound by the neck in a cell with mice and roaches.
The Hungarian statement denied there were rats, and added that conditions were so hygienic that there were no prison outbreaks of COVID-19 during the pandemic.
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Associated Press writer Justin Spike contributed from Budapest, Hungary.
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