Images of an Italian activist Ilaria Salis, 39, with her hands cuffed and chained, her feet locked together as she sat in court in Budapest have made it to the front pages of her country's major newspapers and sparked outrage.
Italy’s government has said that authorities in Hungary went “too far” in putting in chains an Italian woman who is awaiting trial for allegedly attacking neo-Nazis.
Italian ministers summoned Budapest’s ambassador in protest on Tuesday, The Guardian said.
Ilaria Salis was charged with three counts of attempted assault and accused of being part of an extreme leftwing organisation.
She denies the charges, which could see her jailed for up to 11 years, The Guardian said.
“This time it seems to me it has gone too far,” Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani was quoted as saying to RAI radio.
According to the Financial Times, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called Hungary’s leader Viktor Orbán on Tuesday night "amid a worsening dispute over the treatment of a woman from Milan."
According to TGCOM24, the 39-year-old Italian teacher, has been in prison since February 2023 in Budapest on charges of aggravated assault against two neo-Nazis.
The trial began in Hungary on Monday 29 January when the woman arrived in the courtroom tied by her hands and feet . Images that caused quite a stir. Salis has pleaded not guilty, contesting the impossibility of viewing the surveillance camera images on which the accusation is based. The procedural documents were not even translated into, the report said.
The Hungarian judge has confirmed, for now, the precautionary custody in prison. The next hearing is on May 24.