ROME: Italian journalist Cecilia Sala has been released from detention in Iran and is flying home, Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni’s office said in a statement on Wednesday. Sala, 29, who was working on a regular journalist visa, was detained in Tehran on December 19 and held in solitary confinement at the notorious Evin prison in the Iranian capital. Sala was detained three days after Iranian businessman Mohammad Abedini was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport on a US warrant for allegedly supplying drone parts that Washington says were used in a 2024 attack that killed three US service members in Jordan . An Italian statement said Sala was released “thanks to intensive work on diplomatic and intelligence channels”. She did not mention the Abedini case. In recent years, Iranian security forces have arrested dozens of foreigners and dual nationals, mostly on espionage and security charges. Human rights groups have accused Iran of using such arrests to extract concessions from other countries. Iran denies this.
