Rome — An Italian journalist detained in Iran for three weeks and whose fate became linked to that of an Iranian engineer wanted by the United States was released Wednesday and is returning home, Italian officials said.
A plane carrying Cecilia Sala took off from Tehran after “intensive work on diplomatic and intelligence channels”, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office said, adding that Meloni informed Sala’s parents of the news.
Iranian media acknowledged the journalist’s release, citing only foreign reports. Iranian officials had no immediate comment.
Sala, a 29-year-old journalist with the daily Il Foglio, was arrested in Tehran on December 19, three days after arriving 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 transgressions were ever provided by Iranian officials.
Elena Di Vincenzo/Archivio Elena Di Vincenzo/Mondadori Portfolio/Getty
News of Sala’s release was greeted with cheers in Italy, where her plight made headlines, as lawmakers hailed the success of negotiations to repatriate her.
This came after Meloni made a surprise trip to Florida last weekend to meet US President-elect 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 reunite with her family and colleagues.”
Italian commentators had speculated that Iran was holding Sala as a bargaining chip to secure the release of Mohammad Abedini, who had been arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport three days earlier, on December 16, on the basis of an American arrest warrant. Iranian analysts who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity said the same thing.
The U.S. Justice Department charged Abedini and another Iranian with providing Iran with drone technology that was used in a January 2024 attack on a U.S. outpost in Jordan. killed three American soldiers. He is still detained in Italy.
Their fates spiraled into a diplomatic tangle when each country’s foreign ministries summoned the other’s ambassador to demand the prisoners’ release and decent conditions. The saga was particularly complicated for Italy, a historic ally of Washington, but which traditionally maintains good relations with Tehran.
Since the American embassy crisis of 1979which saw dozens of hostages freed after 444 days of captivity, Iran has used prisoners with ties to the West as bargaining chips in negotiations with the world.
In September 2023, five Americans detained for years in Iran have been released in exchange for five Iranians detained by the United States and $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 was detained for more than 540 days before being released in 2016 during a prisoner exchange between Iran and the United States