Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was released on 8 January, after spending 19 days in an Iranian prison. She was arrested in Tehran on 19 December while reporting for the daily Il Foglio and the Chora Media podcast. Sala, 29, was in Iran on a journalist’s visa. She was accused of “violating the laws of the Islamic Republic” and was being held in Evin prison, near the Iranian capital.
According to several sources, the negotiations between the Italian and Iranian authorities for Sala’s release could have involved an exchange with Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, a 38-year-old Iranian citizen arrested in Milan on 16 December at Washington’s request. This is believed to be the reason why Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited the United States on 4 January. US authorities accuse Abedini of having exported electronic equipment to Iran in violation of sanctions against the regime, and of supporting a terrorist organization responsible for the death of three American soldiers in Jordan.
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