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Jailed Italian reporter in Tehran freed: Italy
“The plane taking journalist Cecilia Sala home took off from Tehran a few minutes ago” following “intense work through diplomatic and intelligence channels”, Meloni’s office said in a statement, according to AFP.
“Our compatriot has been released by the Iranian authorities and is on her way back to Italy. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expresses her gratitude to all those who helped make Cecilia’s return possible, allowing her to re-embrace her family and colleagues,” her office said.
Meloni personally informed Sala’s parents of her release by telephone, it added.
The journalist, 29, who writes for the Italian daily Il Foglio and is the host of a news podcast produced by Chora Media, was arrested on December 19 and was kept in Tehran’s Evin prison.
Italy and Iran summoned each other’s ambassadors last week after Rome warned that efforts to secure her release were complicated.
Sala travelled to Iran on December 13 on a journalist’s visa. She was arrested six days later for “violating the law of the Islamic Republic of Iran”, said the country’s Culture Ministry, which oversees and accredits foreign journalists.
She had been due to return home the following day.
On Monday, Iran denied any link between Sala’s arrest and that of Iranian national Mohammad Abedini, detained in Italy in December at the behest of the United States over alleged export violations linked to a deadly attack on US servicemen in Jordan. Iran has denied any link with the incident in Jordan.