On January 8, 2024, the Italian Foreign Minister announced in a tweet that Cecilia Sala, a citizen of Italy who was arrested after traveling to Iran on a journalist visa, has been freed.
Cecilia Sala was arrested in Tehran on December 19, 2024. In response to the arrest, the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that she was detained on charges of “violating the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Since her arrest, this Italian journalist was transferred to one of the solitary confinement cells in Evin Prison in Tehran. During her detention, she was held in inhumane conditions and deprived of access to basic human living standards in custody.
The Iranian government arrested Cecilia Sala just three days after an Iranian citizen named Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi was detained at Milan Airport on charges of “providing electronic components for the production of deadly weapons such as drones for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps” and “financial support for terrorism.” The timing of these arrests has again fueled speculation about the Iranian government’s efforts to use arbitrary detentions of foreign nationals as a means of bargaining for its citizens held abroad.