Ilaria Salis would not be the first
criminal to be elected to the European Parliament, Hungarian
Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party said Wednesday of the
Italian antifascist on trial in Budapest for allegedly attacking
neo-Nazis who is a candidate in the June 8-9 vote for Italy's
Green-Left Alliance (AVS).
"If Ilaria Salis were to sit at the European chamber in July it
wouldn't be a problem, indeed she would not be the first
criminal in this chamber," said Fidesz MEP and former Rome
ambassador Eniko Gyori, speaking to the Italian media in
Strasbourg about the 39-year-old Monza lementary teacher accused
of attempted murder for her part in a German-led hammer gang
that allegedly targeted neoNazis on their Day of Honour
commemorating an SS regiment's "heroic" resistance against the
Red Army in February 2023.
Gyori added, however, that "the fact that the Greens have
decided to candidate her is inconceivable for us".
The AVS candidacy is a bid to get Salis released, at least to
the house arrest she has been denied, with her hopeful EP
immunity from prosecution.
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.
Rome has repeatedly protested after Salis was led into court on
several occasions on a chain with her hands and ankles cuffed,
which Budapest says is standard procedure for its prisoners.
She is also allegedly being held in a jail with bedbugs, rats
and routine mistreatment, her supporters say, a claim Budapest
denies.
Her father says she was tortured in order to get her to confess
to her alleged crime.
Premier Giorgia Meloni, who is a friend and ally of Hungarian
Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has dismissed Salis's run as a
doomed attempt to politicise her case, "which does not help".
Hungary has said its judiciary is independent despite repeated
rule of law issues with the European Union.
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