The Hungarian authorities have understood the situation, they respond to her requests and Italy’s promptings. The chief prosecutor’s visit to the prison also confirms this direction.
Along with the woman’s situation in prison, there is also the legal process of the anti-fascist activist, charged with potentially lethal aggravated assault for participating in a subversive association in two attacks on neo-Nazis. This is where her lawyers’ efforts are focused, in Budapest and especially in Italy.
“We are waiting for this declaration from the Italian authorities, then we will make the request to the judge here,” says Magyar. Aware that the path remains long and narrow: “From the time of the request there will be at least a month before the judge’s decision.”
It would be easier to obtain mitigated precautionary measures in Hungary, but the lawyer confides that the guarantees expected by Italy can help with the other solution. “But this would be an unfair discrimination,” the lawyer argues, citing a framework decision of the Council of the European Union adopted as early as 2009.
It is written there that “in a common European space of justice without internal borders, it is necessary to adopt appropriate measures so that a person undergoing criminal proceedings not resident in the state of the proceedings does not receive different treatment from that reserved for a person undergoing criminal proceedings resident there.” For her transfer to Italy, it is essential to obtain a measure “less afflictive” than detention in prison, as there are no laws allowing a transfer from a prison in one state to that of another without a conviction.
The technical offices of the Italian Ministry of Justice are preparing a document to be submitted to the Minister to illustrate the feasibility of this solution. However, this process requires several steps: request from the defense lawyers; acceptance by the Hungarian judge; transmission of the measure, through the ministry, to the Court of Appeal of Milan (or another competent court) which should then apply the decision made in Budapest in Italy.
It remains to be seen whether the intermediate step of initially granted house arrest at a Hungarian address is necessary; another not so simple puzzle to solve. It is dedicated to Corriere della Sera subscribers and arrives twice a week at 12.
February 3, 2024 (last edited on February 3, 2024 | 08:05) © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.