In chains , with handcuffs tightened on her wrists and ankles and a belt around her waist, kept on a leash by the Hungarian prison police. Thus Ilaria Salis was brought to court today, detained in prison in Budapest since last February on charges of having attacked two neo-Nazi militants during a demonstration. The trial of the 39-year-old teacher of Sardinian origins began this morning at 9am, when he entered the courtroom, and lasted three and a half hours. A scene that mobilized the government, with the intervention of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, and the Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio.
The process
The woman faces up to 24 years in prison . But what worries her family, friends and her lawyer are primarily the conditions in which she is kept in the penitentiary, which are said to be "inhumane". During today's hearing - which took place in front of a "municipal court" - the accused pleaded not guilty and communicated with the magistrates through a translator. With her there were also two co-defendants, a German man and a woman, also accused of attacks carried out last February in the streets of the city against right-wing extremists. Then in the courtroom the lawyers of the other two presented their evidentiary requests, but - as the lawyer Eugenio Losco explains - Salis was not able to present them because, unlike the others, he did not have the opportunity to access the documents, given that a large part did not has been translated. The accusations themselves are based on audio and video materials that have not been viewed.
The accusation
The trial was then adjourned to May 24 but there could be a further hearing in October. A magistrate spoke at length, explaining the according to which the accused are part of a left-wing extremist organisation, formed in Germany and made up of mainly young people who, in addition to taking part in rallies and demonstrations , had planned to fight with physical attacks against far-right sympathizers of neo-Nazi and neo-fascist ideology. Salis, presented as the main accused, again according to the prosecutor, would have participated in multiple attacks "causing aggravated bodily harm, in "criminal conspiracy", to two people and would have participated in a similar crime against a third". Given the dangerousness of the acts carried out, the magistrate asked for an 11-year prison sentence as expected And.
