Italian journalist Cecilia Sala has been released from detention in Iran and is flying home, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.
Sala, 29, who had been working on a regular journalistic visa, was arrested in Tehran on December 19 and held in solitary confinement in the Iranian capital’s notorious Evin prison.
Sala was detained three days after an Iranian businessman, Mohammad Abedini, was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport on a U.S. 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 Sala had been released “thanks to intense work through diplomatic and intelligence channels.” He did not mention 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. Human rights groups have accused Iran of trying to extract concessions from other countries through such arrests. Iran denies it.
