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An Italian journalist arrested in Iran last month and held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison has been freed, the Italian government said on Wednesday.
Cecilia Sala, 29, who was in Tehran on a valid journalist visa, was arrested on December 19, days after Italian authorities detained an Iranian man wanted in the US for allegedly providing sensitive technology to Iran for drones that were used to kill three American soldiers in Jordan.
The journalist’s release comes just days after Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni made an emergency visit to Mar-a-Lago to have dinner with US president-elect Donald Trump, with whom she is believed to have discussed the case.
Iranian authorities, who earlier had said that Sala had been detained for “violating the laws of the Islamic republic”, gave no official confirmation or explanation for the journalist’s sudden release.
Meloni said in a tweet that she had called Sala’s parent’s directly to give them the news.
This is a developing story.
