A photograph released by the Palazzo Chigi press office on Wednesday showing Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, who had been jailed in Iran since December, arriving in Rome following her release.
Credit...Palazzo Chigi Press Office

Italy Says Cecilia Sala, Journalist Detained by Iran, Has Been Released

Cecilia Sala, 29, was detained last month while on a reporting trip. She had been held for 20 days and told her family that she was kept in isolation.

by · NY Times

Cecilia Sala, an Italian journalist who was arrested last month in Iran while on a reporting trip, was released on Wednesday and is now back in Italy, putting an end to a detention that had gripped her country.

Ms. Sala, 29, who had a journalist visa, was arrested on Dec. 19 on charges of violating the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but officials there have not provided any further details of accusations against her.

The Italian government announced Wednesday morning that Ms. Sala’s release was “thanks to intense work on diplomatic and intelligence channels.”

Ms. Sala had been held for 20 days and had told her family that she was kept in an isolation cell, with only two blankets and constant light, her family has said.

On Wednesday Ms. Sala’s partner, Daniele Raineri, said she had called him and told him, “I am free.”

“I am so happy,” Mr. Raineri said as he prepared to go to the airport to greet Ms. Sala. He said the wait was “excruciating” but that Italy had done “exceptional work.”

A photo posted later in the day on Il Post, the online newspaper where Mr. Raineri works as a foreign correspondent, showed Ms. Sala and Mr. Raineri hugging on the tarmac.

Another photo showed her alongside Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni; the country’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani; and the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri.

“Welcome back Cecilia!” Ms. Meloni wrote on social media alongside a photo of the two of them.

It was unclear how Italy obtained the release of Ms. Sala.

She was taken into custody three days after the police in Milan had arrested Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, a 38-year-old Iranian, on behalf of the United States. Mr. Abedini was accused by Washington of providing drone components to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps — the country’s primary military force.

The Iranian authorities said on Dec. 25 that they expected “the Italian government to prevent the violation of the human rights of the Iranian citizen who has been unjustly accused by the United States.”

Iran has often jailed foreigners and dual nationals to extract concessions from their countries, including prisoner swaps. But Iranian officials said on Monday that there had been no connection between Mr. Abedini’s arrest and Ms. Sala’s.

On Wednesday, Mr. Abedini’s lawyer in Italy, Alfredo De Francesco, said he was happy about Ms. Sala’s release and now needed to focus on his client’s case. He did not respond to questions about developments on Mr. Abedini’s case.

Next week, on Jan. 15, Mr. Abedini faces a hearing to determine whether he will be granted house arrest as his case proceeds instead of remaining in jail.

Ms. Sala’s visit to Iran was her first since 2021, and since then, much had changed in the country. A new president has been elected, its shadow war with Israel has moved into the open, and Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria and a longtime ally, had recently been ousted.

Ms. Sala, a writer and podcaster, set out to document the shifting atmosphere. She interviewed a standup comedian, and she photographed women in cafes and on the streets who were not wearing head scarves, posting a selection of images on Instagram last month and describing them as “Tehran’s new faces and new streets.”

Around midday on Dec. 19, as she prepared to leave her hotel for a meeting, her phone was disconnected from the internet, Mr. Raineri said. For 24 hours, her family did not hear from her. The plane on which Ms. Sala was supposed to leave Iran took off without her on Dec. 20. Then they received a phone call, Mr. Raineri said. “I was arrested,” Ms. Sala told her family. “I am not wounded.”

The news of Ms. Sala’s detention became public on Dec. 27, after she received a visit from Italy’s ambassador to Iran. It dominated media coverage in Italy, and President Sergio Mattarella mentioned her case in his end-of-year message.

On Jan 1., Ms. Sala called her family again and reported the dire conditions in which she was being kept. When details of the phone call were leaked to the news media, they caused another shock wave. Ms. Meloni spoke with Ms. Sala’s mother. Then she took off to Mar-a-Lago to meet with President-elect Donald J. Trump.

Less than a week later, Ms. Sala was on her way back to Italy.

On Wednesday, Chora Media, a company that posts podcasts by Ms. Sala, put up a new episode of her show. It contained an interview with her mother after she had received word of her daughter’s release.

It also carried Ms. Sala’s first words at the airport. “Hi, I am back,” she said.

Leily Nikounazar and Farnaz Fassihi contributed reporting.

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