Supporters are calling for Ilaria Salis, who is imprisoned in Hungary, to await her trial in house arrest in Italy. Similar appeals are now being made in Germany.
Gabriele Marchesi, who is being held under house arrest in Milan following a European arrest warrant from Hungary, will for the time being not be extradited to Budapest. This was ruled by the Milan Court of Appeal on Tuesday. The 23-year-old antifa activist is to stand trial in the Hungarian capital for membership of a “left-wing extremist organisation of young adults”.
The court based its decision on concerns regarding “possible violations of fundamental rights” in Hungarian prisons, writes the daily newspaper “Il Manifesto”. The Milan Public Prosecutor General’s Office had also spoken out against the extradition, not least because Budapest had responded “completely inadequately” to questions posed two months ago about its prisons. The Hungarian government is now required to submit a detailed statement by 15 March.
Supporters of Ilaria Salis, who is being held in custody in Hungary, had been reporting on the inhumane treatment for months. The 39-year-old primary school teacher was arrested a year ago after protests against the “Day of Honour” celebrated by thousands of right-wing extremists in Budapest following attacks on actual or suspected participants in a march. She faces up to 24 years in prison if convicted.
The Italian judiciary has not yet made a final decision on the extradition of Marchesi, who could face up to 16 years in prison in Hungary. The next hearing is scheduled for 28 March. The Milan judges called on the Italian Ministry of Justice to request the activation of EU Framework Decision 829 of 2009 for Marchesi in Hungary and to ask the EU agency Eurojust, in which the public prosecutors’ offices of the 27 member states are organised, for help.
According to the Framework Decision, house arrest during criminal proceedings can also take place in the home country. This is to ensure that there is no unequal treatment – for example between a Hungarian and an Italian citizen – before the judiciary. EU Finance Commissioner Mairead McGuinness also called for this in the EU Parliament last week.
To mark the decision in Milan, hundreds of people demonstrated in Rome on Tuesday, including representatives of all opposition parties. They are also calling for Ilaria Salis to be released from custody on the basis of EU Framework Decision 829 and then transferred to house arrest in Italy. There she would await her main trial, which begins on 24 May in Budapest.
In Germany, too, there are now calls for defendants in the Budapest antifa trial to be released from custody. In addition to Salis, Tobias E. from Berlin has been in prison in Hungary for a year; Maja T. is also waiting in jail in Dresden for a decision on her extradition to Hungary.
“The decision of the Milan court sets the bar high and should also be a guideline for Germany: Maja T. and other defendants must not be extradited to Hungary,” demands Jule Nagel (Left Party), member of the Saxon state parliament. Tobias E., who has already been sentenced at first instance in Hungary, should be released from prison and alternatively placed under house arrest before he is transferred to Germany, Nagel told “nd”.
“The German government must finally deal with this, otherwise it will be complicit in the violation of fundamental rights,” said the Left Party politician. In Berlin, however, there is currently no reason to do so, the Foreign Ministry and the Justice Ministry explained at the Federal Press Conference on Monday in response to a question from “nd”.
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: Call for antifascist protest in Milano.
