Iran Releases Jailed Italian Journalist

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

ROME/TEHRAN (Worthy News) – Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was back home Thursday after spending nearly three weeks behind bars in one of Iran’s most notorious prisons.

Sala landed at an airport near Rome on Wednesday afternoon, just hours after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office announced she was on her way home.

Sala had been detained in Tehran while on assignment, officials said.

The 29-year-old journalist was reportedly arrested for what Iran said was her involvement in “violating the law” of the Islamic Republic.

According to her supporters, Sala entered Iran on a valid journalist visa in mid-December and was scheduled to return to Rome on December 20.

However, Worthy News learned she was arrested a day before her departure.

Her release followed “intensive efforts through diplomatic and intelligence channels,” Meloni’s office declared.

EXPRESSING GRATITUDE

“Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expresses her gratitude to everyone who contributed to Cecilia’s return, allowing her to reunite with her family and colleagues.” Meloni personally informed Sala’s family over the phone of her release.

One of Sala’s employers, the Italian podcast company Chora Media, had earlier reported that the journalist was held in solitary confinement at Tehran’s feared Evin Prison.

That detention facility has been holding political prisoners as well as Christians, Worthy News documented.

Sala had told her family that she was forced to sleep on the floor in a cell where the lights remained on constantly, sources familiar with the situation said.

Italy summoned the Iranian ambassador last week to demand Sala’s release. The following day, Iran reportedly summoned the Italian ambassador to address the detention of an Iranian citizen in Italy.

Iranian national Mohammad Abedini had been arrested three days before Sala’s detention, as the U.S. Justice Department accused him of involvement in a deadly drone attack.

He and another Iranian allegedly supplied drone technology to Iran used in a January 2024 attack on a U.S. outpost in Jordan that killed three American troops. He remains in detention in Italy.

Iran has denied any connection between Sala’s case and Abedini’s.

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