Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Justice Minister Carlo Nordio said after meeting Roberto Salis on Monday that they cannot interfere with the Ilaria Salis trial in Budapest.
The ministers pointed out that the principles of a State’s jurisdictional sovereignty “prevent any interference in the conduct of the trial and in the change of the suspect’s state of freedom.” This referred to a request to try and get the antifascist militant placed under house arrest ahead of a hoped-for transfer to Italy.
Salis stands accused of attacking neo-Nazi protestors during a demonstration. Her actions led to their deaths. A co-accused pleaded guilty and has already been sentenced to three years in prison. Salis denies this and entered a plea of not guilty.
There was outrage in some quarters when Salis was shown shackled when entering court last week.
Italian Embassy cannot request substitution of pre-trial measures
The ministers “represented the legal and factual reasons why the request for substitution of the pre-trial measure at the Italian Embassy is not possible”, a statement said.
In particular, Nordio pointed out that “an epistolary interlocution between an Italian ministry and the foreign court would be irregular and inadmissible.” Nordio said he had told Salis’s father Roberto that a Hungarian lawyer should file a request for house arrest.
Nordio “pointed out to Ilaria Salis’s father and lawyer, who were also met separately today by Farnesina Minister Antonio Tajani, that it would be advisable for the Hungarian lawyer to insist to the competent body that the prison detention be modified, which is an indispensable condition for activating the 2009 EU framework decision and thus the possible execution of house arrest in Italy,” the statement said.
“He also explained that the intervention of the guarantor of detainees will ensure that the detention treatment of his compatriot complies with international standards.”
