Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has pledged to free Italian journalist, Cecilia Sala, who was detained in Iran.
Ms Sala has been held in solitary confinement in Tehran’s infamous Evin Prison without any explanation for over a week.
The 29-year-old journalist and podcaster was arrested on Dec 19 at her hotel in the Iranian capital a day after she presented a podcast for Chora Media about a jailed female Iranian comedian.
Ms Meloni said she was “following the complex affair closely” and was pursuing every avenue to bring the young journalist home.
“In agreement with her parents, we are pursuing this objective by activating all possible avenues of dialogue and with necessary caution,” the prime minister said in a statement.
Ms Sala, who was due to return to Italy on Dec 20, has not been charged with any crime and there is growing speculation she was detained in Teheran’s most notorious prison as a reprisal for Italy’s arrest of an Iranian national wanted by the US.
Demonstrators in Turin take part in a peaceful sit-in for Cecilia Sala who has been detained in Iran – JESSICA PASQUALON/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, a 38-year-old Swiss-Iranian linked to the Tehran regime, was detained on an international arrest warrant at Milan airport on Dec 16 after landing on a flight from Istanbul.
Antonio Tajani, Italy’s foreign affairs minister, confirmed Mr Najafabadi’s arrest on Saturday but stressed it was not up to the Italian government to determine his fate.
“Italy does not have jurisdiction over the prosecution of this Iranian,” Mr Tajani told journalists. “The courts will decide. At the moment he is being held in prison but with all the guarantees that are given to a non-Italian detainee.”
Mr Najafabadi is being held in Milan’s Opera prison where he is facing extradition to the US on terrorism charges.
“He rejects the charges and is unable to understand the reasons for the arrest,” Alfredo De Francesco, his defence lawyer, told ANSA news agency.
Chora Media said Ms Sala had left Rome for Iran on December 12 with a valid visa and had conducted several interviews and produced three episodes of her “Stories” podcast.
Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was arrested by police in Tehran, Iran – @ceciliasala/Instagram
Claudio Cerasa, the editor of Il Foglio newspaper, one of the outlets that employ Ms Sala, defended her right “to report on a country she knows and loves, a country where information is stifled in the face of repression, threats, intimidation, violence, and detentions”.
In a strongly worded editorial, Mr Cerasa said Iran was one of the worst countries in the world to be a journalist and said Iran was using Ms Sala’s arrest to demonstrate the strength of the regime.
He declined to comment further on Sunday.
Italy’s foreign ministry said Rome’s ambassador to Tehran, Paola Amadei, had visited Ms Sala in prison on Friday and she had been allowed to make two phone calls to her family.
Giudo Crosetto, Italy’s defence minister, said in a social media post that her arrest was “unacceptable”, while adding Italy was working at the highest political level to have her freed.
Evin prison has been used by the Tehran regime to detain thousands of people connected to the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests that were sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September 2022.
British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in Iran in April 2016 while visiting family in Iran with her then 22-month-old daughter.
She was sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of supposedly plotting to topple the Tehran regime and was only released in March 2022 after Britain paid an outstanding debt of £393.8 million to Iran.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe has said she spent almost 1,800 days in Evin prison.