Italian PM Giorgia Meloni's office told the media that a plane carrying Cecilia Sala took off from Tehran after “intensive work on diplomatic and intelligence channels,” and Meloni had informed Sala's parents of the news.
𓃲The Italian officials confirmed that journalist Cecilia Sala has been freed from detention in Iran and is heading home on a flight from Tehran on Wednesday. Sala was detained in Iran since December 19 allegedly as a bargaining chip for an Iranian engineer who wanted by the United States and is detained in Italy.
🅘The Iranian government is yet to respond to this news as of yet.
ღItalian PM Giorgia Meloni's office told the media that a plane carrying Cecilia Sala took off from Tehran after “intensive work on diplomatic and intelligence channels,” and Meloni had informed Sala's parents of the news.
ꦑSala, a 29-year-old reporter for the Il Foglio daily, was detained in Tehran on December 19, three days after she arrived on a journalist visa.
ꦿShe was accused of violating the laws of the Islamic Republic, the official IRNA news agency said.
💞Italian commentators had speculated that Iran was holding Sala as a bargaining chip to ensure the release of Mohammad Abedini, who was arrested at Milan's Malpensa airport three days before on December 16, on a US warrant.
ꦯThe US Justice Department accused him and another Iranian of supplying the drone technology to Iran that was used in a January 2024 attack on a US outpost in Jordan that killed three American troops.
He remains in detention in Italy.
🅘On January 3, both the Italian and Iranian governments referred to the two cases in their respective public statements after the Iranian ambassador was summoned to the Italian foreign ministry.
𒐪This move suggested the cases were very much intertwined as each country seeks the release of its citizen. Both say their detaineed national is being unjustly accused.