Prominent Italian journalist and podcaster Cecilia Sala has been freed from Tehran’s Evin prison for political prisoners, where she had been detained since Dec. 19.
On Wednesday, a spokesman for Italian Premiere Giorgia Meloni’s office said Sala – who was arrested while reporting in the Iranian capital – was flying home on an airplane following “intensive work on diplomatic and intelligence channels.”
Sala, who is 29, works for Rome-based newspaper Il Foglio and Italian podcast company Chora Media.
The young but already prominent Italian journalist had been conducting several interviews in Tehran after arriving there on Dec. 12 with a valid journalist visa. Sala was supposed to board her flight back to Italy on Dec. 20, but was instead arrested a day before her planned return.
Sala was freed following an unplanned meeting last weekend between Meloni and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The meeting took place after it emerged that Iran was believed to have imprisoned Sala as a bargaining chip in hopes of pressuring Italy to release Mohammad Abedini, an Iranian businessman. Abedini was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport on Dec. 16 on a U.S. warrant after being accused of providing drone technology to Iran that was used in a recent attack on a U.S. outpost in Jordan. However, Abedini remains behind bars in Italy.
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Italian media immediately cheered Sala’s return to the country. In a statement on X, Meloni thanked “all those who helped make Cecilia’s return possible, allowing her to reembrace her family and colleagues.”