Italian journalist freed by Iran, says Meloni’s office

Italian journalist Cecilia Sala has been freed from detention in Iran and is flying home, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office said today, Reuters has reported.

Sala, 29, who had been working in Iran under a regular journalist visa, was detained in Tehran on 19 December and held in solitary confinement in the Iranian capital’s notorious Evin Prison.

Sala was detained three days after Iranian businessman Mohammad Abedini was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa Airport on a US warrant for allegedly supplying drone parts that Washington says were used in a 2024 attack that killed three US service members in Jordan.

The Italian statement said that Sala had been freed “thanks to intense work on diplomatic and intelligence channels”. It made no mention of the Abedini case.

In recent years, Iran’s security forces have arrested dozens of foreigners and dual nationals, mostly on charges related to espionage and security. Rights groups have accused Tehran of trying to extract concessions from other countries through such arrests. The Iranian government denies this.

READ: Iran says detention of Iranian in Italy amounts to ‘hostage-taking’