Marcelli recounts the hearing a Wired. Two other people in addition to Ilaria are in the dock. One of them, a young German named Tobias, “accused of belonging to the so-called Hammerband, he pleaded guilty, and was immediately sentenced to three years in prison, with a sentence issued on the spot”, says Marcelli. Ilaria is not accused of being part of this association. “There are only specific facts against her. Salis has declared herself innocent, and the proceedings against her are therefore continuing, as is that against the third accused, present in the courtroom today, but at large for some time”, says the lawyer. The Italian, however, she was led into the courtroom escorted by two soldiers in camouflage suits and with their faces covered, tied with a rope to the guards. A sort of leash, “a disproportionate treatment, which should probably be reserved for criminals of a much higher caliber” says an Italian who has lived in Hungary for many years, who requested anonymity in order to participate in this article: “The thing that impressed me was the fact that she entered the courtroom smiling, despite the harsh conditions of detention to which she is subjected.“. “Salis appeared in good general conditioncompatibly with the harsh detention he has been suffering for about a year”, confirms Marcelli. The Hungarian defense requested a series of medical and anthropometric reports, the lawyer continues, to dismantle the prosecution’s theory that it was she who attacked the neo-Nazi militants. The next hearing is set for May 21.
Politics
The game isn’t just played in the classroom. “Now it becomes fundamental constant interlocution capacity of the Italian authorities, not only on the diplomatic but also political front” concludes Marcelli. On the Italian side, after a silence that lasted months, on Tuesday 23 January the father met with the Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio. The ministry, says Salis commenting on the meeting, is studying a strategy, “which we are refining but which, as things stand, I cannot reveal”. Before returning to Italy, the engineer has a I meet the Italian ambassador in Budapest, Manuel Iacoangeli.
The objective is to bring Ilaria back to Italy already during her preventive detention: the proceedings could last a year for the first instance but an appeal on appeal and at the third instance judgment are likely, for a total duration of over five years according to the average Hungarian timescales. Another element will have an impact on the defensive and diplomatic scheme: on 16 February the Court of Appeal of Milan will give its ruling, called to decide on the extradition of Gabriele Marchesi, arrested for the same charges when he was already in Italy. “If they deny it, Ilaria’s detention will become even more intolerable”, says Salis, who will return to Italy on Wednesday.
The cellmate: inhumane conditions
Ilaria Salis was arrested on 11 February 2023 in Budapest while she was in a taxi. The accusation, which the Monza native denies, is of having participated in the attack of two militants presumably linked to the far right, in the city for the Day of Honour, an annual neo-Nazi celebration in memory of the Wermacht and SS fallen during the second World War. A cellmate, Carmen Giorgio from Bergamo, told in an interview a Republic what the conditions of detention are, confirming Salis’ account: “Mice, pigeons, bedbugs, chains, abuse and beatings, we saw it all in there, it’s an out-of-this-world place full of crooked things. And she’s afraid of staying there forever”. Giorgio, says the Roman newspaper, was released on Wednesday 24 January with a sentence and a deportation order. For Ilaria the ordeal could last much longer.