Rome – An Italian journalist who was held in Iran for three weeks and became associated with an Iranian engineer wanted by the United States was freed on Wednesday and is returning home, Italian officials announced .
Airplane carrying Cecilia Sala leave Tehran after “intense work on diplomatic and intelligence channels,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's office said, adding that Meloni had contacted Sala's parents about the news.
Iranian media admitted that the journalist was published, citing only the foreign reports. Iranian officials had no immediate comment.
Sala, a 29-year-old reporter for the daily Il Foglio, was detained in Tehran on December 19, three days after she arrived on a journalist's visa. She was accused of violating the laws of the Islamic Republic, the official IRNA news agency said, but no details of her alleged crimes were provided by Iranian officials.
Elena Di Vincenzo Archives/Elena Di Vincenzo/Mondadori/Getty Folder
Sala's word of release was welcomed in Italy, where her plight has dominated headlines, while lawmakers hailed the successful negotiations to bring her home.
It came after Meloni made a surprise trip to Florida last weekend to meet US President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Meloni tweeted Sala's return in a statement on X in which she thanked “everyone who helped make Cecilia's return possible, allowing her to remember her family and colleagues.”
Italian reporters had speculated that Iran was holding Sala as a bargaining chip to secure the release of Mohammad Abedini, who was arrested at Milan's Malpensa airport three days earlier on December 16. , on a US warrant. Iranian analysts who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity said the same.
The US Department of Justice charged Abedini and other Iranians with providing drone technology to Iran that was used in a January 2024 attack on a US military base in Jordan that was killed three American soldiers. He is still in custody in Italy.
The poem turned into a diplomatic problem when the foreign ministry of each country called the ambassador of the island to ask for the release of the prisoners and reasonable conditions. The saga was particularly complicated for Italy, which is a historic ally of Washington, but traditionally has good relations with Tehran.
Because the 1979 US Embassy Crisiswhich saw dozens of hostages released after 444 days in captivity, Iran has used prisoners with Western ties as bargaining chips in talks with the world.
In September 2023, five Americans held for years in Iran have been freed in exchange for five Iranians in US custody and for $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets to be released by South Korea.
Western journalists have also been detained in the past. Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian held for more than 540 days before release in 2016 in a prisoner swap between Iran and the US
