The Italian officials confirmed that journalist Cecilia Saཧla 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 a༒llegedly as a bargaining chip for an Iranian engineer who wanted by the United States and is detained in Italy.
The Iran🌸ian government is yet to respond to this𓆉 news as of yet.
Italian PM Giorgia Meloni's office told the media that a plane carrying Cecilia Sala took off from Tehran af🐈ter “intensive work on diplomatic and intelligence channels,” and Meloni had informed Sala'🤡s parents of the news.
Why Was Italian Journalist Sala Detained?
Sala, a 29-year-old reporter for the Il Fogli📖o 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 IR🌄NA news agency sai🌼d.
It♏alian commentators had speculated that Irꦜan 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.
The US Justice D♑epartment 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 r🀅eferred to the two cases in their respective public statements after the Iranian amba🤪ssador was summoned to the Italian foreign ministry.
This move suggested the cases were very much i♑🌄ntertwined as each country seeks the release of its citizen. Both say their detaineed national is being unjustly accused.
