Photos of a 39-year-old Italian woman who was brought to court in Budapest in chains caused the anger of politicians and the public in Italy, and the Italian government invited the Hungarian ambassador to hand him an official protest.
Ilaria Salis, a 39-year-old primary school teacher in Monza, near Milan, appeared in court on January 29 with her hands and feet handcuffed.
She was accused of participating in violent attacks on neo-Nazis in February 2023.
The series of attacks took place after a neo-Nazi rally in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.
Radical leftists are suspected of attacking several people after the traditional "Day of Honor" rally, a commemorative annual right-wing gathering dedicated to honoring Nazi troops in besieged Budapest during World War II.
A video has been circulating on the Internet in Hungary for the past few days, showing anti-fascist activists kicking and beating a Hungarian man, who is lying on the ground.
Attackers cannot be identified.
- Longtime adviser to Hungarian Prime Minister resigns over Orban's "Nazi speech"
- The fascist salute triggered an avalanche among the Italian public
- How Viktor Orbán's scarf angered Hungary's neighbors
Two German citizens were arrested with Ilaria Salis, one of whom pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 3,5 years in prison.
Salis, who was charged with assault causing grievous bodily harm, which carries a sentence of 11 years in prison, pleaded not guilty.
The prosecutor claimed that she and the other defendants came to Hungary with the sole intention of "carrying out surprise attacks that could cause serious harm to people believed to be far-right."
Although Salis has been in prison for almost a year, her case began to gain attention only in October after her father Roberto spoke publicly about a letter in which his daughter described the harsh conditions in detention.
In an interview with the Italian newspaper Repubblica, the detainee, who was with Salis in prison, said that she was deliberately kept in a cell "full of rats and insects".
Interest in the case grew especially on Monday, January 29, when Italian media published photos of Salis shackled in court.
A petition was launched on the Internet demanding that Salis be returned to Italy, and more than 90.000 signatures have been collected so far.
Antonio Tajani, Italy's foreign minister, said on Tuesday, January 30, that he had called the Hungarian ambassador in Rome to "ask him why some of the most basic norms about the conditions of detainees are not respected."
Prime Minister of Italy Đorđa Meloni, who leads the right-wing nationalist party Brothers of Italy and is on good terms with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has not yet commented on the case, which is why many criticize her.
"Giordja Meloni, we don't care that Orban is your good friend - you have to be decisive and raise your voice.
"The rights and dignity of Italians are more important than friends and political allies," Five Star Movement leader Giuseppe Conte wrote on the X social network.
- Đorđa Meloni: Who is the ultra-right leader who rules Italy
- Viktor Orban, the politician who angers Europe
- What brought Serbia and Hungary closer together
Eugenio Losko, one of Ilaria Salis' lawyers, told the BBC that the court scenes were "a clear violation of the European Convention on Human Rights which states that no one can be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".
Losko added that his client stated that she was not shown the video in which she is allegedly at the scene of the beating of the Hungarians, and she was not provided with a translation of the documents with the alleged evidence against her.
The claims of unhygienic conditions in the prison are called false by the Hungarian prison service, adding that "hygiene checks are constantly carried out in the institutions" and that prisoners receive appropriate medical care.
"It's a lie that he's in a cell with rats. The prisons meet high hygiene standards," the Hungarian prison services claim.
Hungary's prisons are overcrowded and understaffed, according to the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights group.
The September 2023 report cited a number of complaints, including bed bug infestations, cold weather, a ban on exercise in the cells, insufficient hot water and bad and unpalatable food.
Andras Kadar of the Helsinki Committee told the BBC that although Hungarian prison authorities "routinely use physical restraints when bringing detained defendants to court... this not only violates domestic legal principles, but also violates European Court of Human Rights standards".
The case, which dominates the media headlines in Italy and is followed with interest in Hungary, is beginning to resonate in the rest of Europe.
"This is very worrying," Juan Fernando López Aguilar, president of the European Parliament's civil liberties committee, told the BBC.
"It is simply horrible to watch such a medieval scene in the court of a member state of the European Union," he added.
Lawyer Ilaria Salis says it is "quite difficult to be optimistic" about the outcome of the trial and accused the Hungarian judicial system of being "very repressive".
Losko added that his client should be allowed to be transferred to a remand prison in Italy, stressing that EU law allows citizens to be under house arrest in any member state of which they are citizens.
"I don't understand why it is not approved this time," he said, adding that "there is no danger" that she could escape.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter i Viber. If you have a topic proposal for us, contact us at bbcnasrpskom@bbc.co.uk
Bonus video:
