Lawyers acting for Ilaria Salis, the
39-year-old elementary school teacher and anti-Fascist activist
on trial in Hungary for allegedly attacking two Hungarian
neo-Nazis almost a year ago, said Wednesday their client had
been acquitted of damaging a gazebo used by the right-wing
League party in Monza in February 2017.
Earlier the League, a government coalition partner led by Deputy
Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, said in a
statement that Salis had gone on trial for being part of a group
that attacked the gazebo and assaulted two young women present,
who allegedly subsequently identified her.
"Ilaria Salis was acquitted for not committing the deed in
relation to the attack on the League's gazebo in 2017," lawyer
Eugenio Losco told ANSA.
"Salis was not identified by the two League militants, but
merely identified as a participant in the march that took place
that day in Monza from a video produced as evidence.
"The judge stated in the sentence that she appears to have
participated only in the procession without in any way taking
part in the criminal activities of other people, or having in
any way encouraged or supported others to do so," he explained.
In its statement the League also said that the current attention
to the situation involving Salis in Hungary "provides an
opportunity to reiterate that the legitimate exercise of dissent
should never result in episodes of violence, especially such as
those carried out against defenceless young women attacked by a
mob as happened in Monza".
On Tuesday evening Salis' father Roberto denounced a growing
effort to discredit his daughter's actions, pointing to "photos
going around of a crime committed in Hungary for which my
daughter is not accused".
Rome has protested to Budapest after Salis was led into court on
a chain with her hands and ankles cuffed amid unsubstantiated
reports of inhumane prison conditions.
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