Ilaria Salis released from Budapest prison to house arrest

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 23 - Italian anti-Fascist activist Ilaria Salis was released on Thursday from Budapest's Gyorskocsi utca maximum security prison, where she had been held for more than 15 months, and was transferred to a residence where she will remain under house arrest during her trial in Hungary, ANSA sources said. The 39-year-old Monza elementary school teacher is accused of involvement in an attack on three neo-Nazis in Budapest last year.
    Salis's conditions of detention have sparked 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 here.
    The Green-Left Alliance (AVS) recently made her one of their candidates for next month's European elections.
    A Hungarian court subsequently accepted a Salis's plea to be released to house arrest.
    Her family and her supporters hope this will make it possible for her to apply to return to Italy and stay under house arrest at home.
    "Finally we have the opportunity to embrace Ilaria again," the woman's father Roberto Salis told ANSA.
    "Let's hope this is a temporary stage before finally seeing her in Italy".
    Salis is accused of 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. (ANSA).