THE Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, summoned the Hungarian ambassador in Rome to go to the Foreign Ministry of the Eternal City, for meeting regarding the Italian citizen Ilaria Sotis, who has been incarcerated in Budapest prisons for a year.

This is a thirty-nine-year-old Italian teacher who is accused of beating two neo-Nazis, a year ago, in the Hungarian capital. She denies the charges and risks being sentenced to up to eleven years in prison. During the first trial, yesterday, the images broadcast by the Italian public television Rai caused a shock: the defendant was taken to the Budapest courtroom handcuffed, with a chain and addressing the judges complained that she was not yet able to receive full knowledge of the indictment.

Today, the general secretary of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked the Hungarian ambassador in Rome to immediately consider the possibility of continuing Sotis’ pre-trial detention as an alternative to prison, with reference, mainly, to the possibility of house arrest.

The Italian foreign minister had already requested yesterday that the Budapest government implement European law regarding the detention of citizens in prisons.

According to the press, the case of the Italian anti-fascist activist is very likely to be discussed in a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Hungarian counterpart, Viktor Orbán, during the European summit in Brussels, which begins the day after tomorrow.

Sallis’ father stated that “finally, after so many months, something has started to move” and that “now, thanks to this great awareness, he has started to be modestly optimistic”. He asked to ascertain, however, whether the Italian authorities had already become aware of the extreme conditions of his daughter’s detention.

Finally, the Five Star Movement asked the Italian Prime Minister to immediately inform the parliament about the initiatives she intends to undertake to help this particular citizen and called on Meloni “to deal, as a top priority, with the interest of the Italian people and not with that of Orban”.