The European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs will deliberate on Thursday, January 23rd, whether to lift the immunity of left-wing radical MEP Ilaria Salis.
The request to lift the 40-year-old Italian lawmaker’s immunity was handed in by Hungary last year, following the election of Salis to the European Parliament (EP).
Ilaria Salis was arrested and imprisoned in Hungary in 2023 for participating in a series of attacks organised by the Hammerbande (Hammer Gang), a German left-wing militant group linked to Antifa. The members of the group surrounded and bludgeoned nine innocent people—who the attackers decided “looked like” neo-Nazis based on their choice of clothing—with telescopic batons and hammers on the streets of Budapest.
Salis was arrested and charged with three counts of attempted assault and accused of being part of an extreme left-wing organisation. Last year she was released from prison and transferred to house arrest in Budapest until, after her election as an MEP, she gained legal immunity and was released.
Following the request of the Hungarian prosecutor’s office for the EP to strip her of her immunity so that she can be extradited to Hungary, Salis said she hopes
that the Parliament chooses to defend the rule of law and human rights without yielding to the arrogance of an illiberal democracy with autocratic tendencies.
In a recent tweet on her X account, the Italian MEP declared that neither she, nor her Antifa accomplices, “can imagine a fair trial under the Orbán regime, where the political power, blinded by a thirst for ideological revenge, has already declared anti-fascists guilty.”
https://twitter.com/SalisIlaria/status/1879802434853421202/history
Many Hungarian officials have rightly pointed out that she wasn’t arrested for her political views, but for an armed assault on innocent Hungarian citizens.
Seven of her accomplices, who are suspected of having taken part in the attacks in Budapest, turned themselves in to German authorities earlier this week. The alleged perpetrators are between the ages of 21 and 27. They hope that by giving themselves up to the police, they will not be extradited to Hungary. One of their lawyers repeated Ilaria Salis’s baseless comments, saying that “a fair trial is not guaranteed under the right-wing authoritarian government in Hungary.”
The final decision on Salis will not be made on Thursday, but will come from a vote in the plenary session at a later date.
