Activists on Friday morning occupied
the Hungarian consulate in Venice to demand the release form
detention of Ilaria Salis, the 39-year-old Monza elementary
school teacher and antifascist militant facing up to 24 years in
Budapest for allegedly attacking two neo Nazis last February.
Thirty members of the leftwing Rivolta (Revolt) social centre
occupied the premises in Piazzale Roma at the same time that
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio was visiting nearby Padua and
called to "Free Ilaria Salis at once".
"We are here because we want her freedom, because this trial is
a farce that intends only to punish antifascism, in a state
where anti-migrant border patrols are not only tolerated, but
promoted," the activists said.
"It is an anti-democratic policy," they added.
Images last month of Salis being led into in a Budapest court on
a chain and wearing hand and ankle cuffs and simultaneous
unconfirmed media reports of substandard detention conditions
including bed bugs, mice, filth and inhuman punishments led to a
public outcry in Italy, prompting Rome to protest and Premier
Giorgia Meloni to secure a promise from her Hungarian
counterpart Viktor Orban that the militant would get a fair
trial in good conditions.
Salis' family and lawyers are asking for her to be released to
house arrest in Hungary or Italy pending the conclusion of her
trial.
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