Journalist Cecilia Sala freed from Iran prison, Italy says

Italian journalist Cecilia Sala has been freed from detention in Iran and is flying home, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.

Sala, 29, who had been working under a regular journalistic visa, was detained in Tehran on Dec. 19 and held in solitary confinement in the Iranian capital’s notorious Evin prison.

Sala was detained three days after an Iranian businessman, Mohammad Abedini, was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa Airport on a U.S. warrant for allegedly supplying drone parts that Washington says were used in a 2024 attack that killed three U.S. service members in Jordan.

The Italian statement said Sala had been freed “thanks to intense work on diplomatic and intelligence channels.” It made no mention of the Abedini case.

In recent years, Iran’s security forces have arrested dozens of foreigners and dual nationals, mostly on charges related to espionage and security. Rights groups have accused Iran of trying to extract concessions from other countries through such arrests. Iran denies this.