Hungary's judiciary will decide if detained Italian anti-fascist Ilaria Salis can stay at the embassy during her trial in Budapest for assaulting several neo-Nazis at a rally last February, foreign minister Antonio Tajani stated on Friday.
"It will have to be the Hungarian judicial authorities that decide whether Ilaria Salis can be received in the embassy," Tajani told state broadcaster Rai 3's Agora programme.
"And we'll have to see if this is possible from a logistical point of view," Tajani said.
Although the embassy is not "an extraterritorial location", were Salis to stay there it would be equivalent to "being under house arrest in Italy", Tajani argued.
Salis, a 39-year-old primary school teacher and lead Green-Left candidate MEP, has asked to be transferred to the embassy from house arrest in Budapest after she received threats from far-right groups.
Tajani claimed the government "has done everything possible" to ensure security for Salis, who faces up to 11 years in jail if she is convicted in her ongoing trial, which began in May.
Salis could be released if she is elected to the European Parliament in the vote taking place in Italy this weekend. If she wins enough votes, Salis could claim parliamentary immunity, leading to the suspension of criminal proceedings against her.
Salis spent over 15 months in a high-security prison before a Hungarian court granted her transfer to house arrest last month on 40,000 euros bail and on the condition she wear an electronic monitoring bracelet.
Salis made international news and sparked a diplomatic row when she appeared shackled, handcuffed and chained at a pre-trial hearing in Budapest in January. Italy's premier Giorgia Meloni has made several official complaints to Hungary over Salis' case, sparking tension with her ally Viktor Orban, the country's hard-right leader.
Salis was arrested on 11 February 2023 together with two German activists on charges of beating three neo-Nazis and being part of a criminal association.
