Roberto Salis, father of antifascist
Ilaria Salis who has just been granted house arrest after 15
months in controversial prison detention in Hungary and is on
trial for allegedly attacking three neoNazis last year, said
Friday he has strong fears for her safety ahead of her release
scheduled for next week.
"We are asking all journalists not to show up in front of the
prison where Ilaria is being held because there are strong fears
for her safety and therefore, when she gets out, she will go to
her house in secret", he said outside the Gyorskocsi Utca prison
in Budapest, where she has alleged she has been held in dirty
and inhumane conditions and from which she has been led on a
chain into court with her hands and ankles cuffed sparking
Italian protests.
"We ask journalists," Roberto Salis told ANSA, "who have always
been sensitive and sympathetic, to understand the situation and
to guarantee the safety of Ilaria and those close to her".
Salis said Thursday that Foreign Minister Antonio 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 pres she was "proud" of the government's
actions in the case.
Roberto Salis also said that an interior ministry suggestion
that his daughter should ask to be put on the roll of overseas
voters was "totally out of place" as it would scupper her
chances of being moved to house arrest in Italy.
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, who is running in the European elections for the
Green-Left Alliance (AVS).
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.
Hungary's prison service said Tuesday Salis can vote in the June
8-9 European elections, rejecting her father Roberto's claims as
"baseless".
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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