Italy asks Iran for guarantees on Sala, immediate release

New meeting between ambassador, journo requested in formal act

By: ansa.it

Jan 02 2025
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Italy asks Iran for guarantees

Italy has asked Tehran for "total guarantees on the condition of detention of Cecilia Sala" and for the "immediate release" of the Italian journalist in a verbal note which the Italian foreign ministry, through the Italian Ambassador to Tehran Paola Amadei, has delivered to the Iranian government as part of the work carried out by Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, with Premier Giorgia Meloni, Justice Minister Carlo Nordio and Cabinet Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano, to reach a quick and positive solution to the case, well-informed sources said.
    Sala, a 29-year-old Il Foglio freelance correspondent and Chora News podcaster, was arrested on December 19 and has been generically charged with breaching Islamic law.
    She is currently detained in solitary confinement in Tehran's Evin prison.
    Italy has first of all requested the best detention conditions with the possibility of providing care packages, the sources said.
    On this issue, Farnesina (foreign ministry) sources have noted that the "timing and manner of detention will be a univocal indication of the real intentions and attitude of the Iranian system towards the Italian Republic".
    The requests delivered to Iranian authorities include a new meeting between Italy's ambassador to Tehran and Sala after the one held on December 27.
    Tajani said he hoped it "can be granted swiftly", stressing that officials are "working with great discretion to solve this extremely intricate problem: we are doing everything we can, we are constantly in contact with the family".
    At the moment, the charges pressed against the journalist, who will be granted legal assistance soon, appear to be generic, possibly indicating that the objective of Iranian authorities could be an exchange with Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, a 38-year-old Swiss-Iranian businessman arrested in Milan, three days before Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was detained in Iran, at the request of the United States.
    Abedini's alleged accomplice Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi was arrested in the US also on December 16.
    Both men have been charged by Washington with sanctions-busting trafficking in electronic drone parts allegedly used in last January's fatal attack on the servicemen near the Jordanian Syrian border.
    An appeals court in Milan is set to rule on an extradition request filed by the US for Abedini, who has said he is an academic and not a terrorist.
    The court, however, will first have to rule on the request presented by Abedini's lawyer to grant him house arrest.
    Abedini is currently detained at Milan's Opera prison.