The Italian government on Thursday summoned the Iranian ambassador to demand the release of journalist Cecilia Sala, who was arrested without due process or clear charges in Tehran on December 19.
Iran responded that Sala will only be freed if Italy releases Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, an Iranian national arrested by Italy on behalf of the United States on December 16.
Abedini, 38, is a drone expert accused of supplying advanced technology to the Iranian military in defiance of U.S. sanctions. Components provided by Abedini were allegedly used in a January 2024 drone attack by Iran-backed militants that killed three U.S. service members in northern Jordan.
Abedini’s company, San’at Danesh Rahpooyan Aflak (SDRA), specializes in creating navigation modules for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The company provides these modules to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government in 2019.
Abedini was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on December 16 for conspiring with Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, a dual U.S.-Iranian national, to illegally procure electronic components from American companies for use by the IRGC.
Abedini was promptly arrested at an airport in Milan, Italy, at the request of the United States, while Sadeghi was taken into custody in Massachusetts.
Three days later, Iran arrested 29-year-old Cecilia Sala, a journalist who writes for Italy’s Il Foglio and hosts a news podcast. She had traveled to Tehran on December 13 with a journalist’s visa. She was arrested the day before she was scheduled to return to Italy and vaguely charged with “violating the laws of the Islamic Republic.”
Sala’s last podcast, posted the day before her arrest, concerned a female Iranian standup comedian named Zeynab Mousavi who was arrested in October 2023 for speaking out against Iran’s laws requiring women to cover their heads. The podcast episode was titled “A Conversation on Patriarchy in Tehran.”
Mousavi spoke up at a time when the brutal Iranian regime was struggling with nationwide protests over the killing of a young Kurdish woman named Mahsa Amini, kidnapped by Iranian “morality police” for not wearing her headscarf properly and believed to have been beaten to death.
When Sala’s arrest was revealed, there was speculation she angered the Iranian regime by discussing Mousavi’s plight on her podcast, but it soon appeared likely she was taken hostage by the Iranians to secure Abedini’s release.
The Italian Foreign Ministry on Thursday summoned Iran’s ambassador to demand Sala’s release and express “serious concern” about the conditions of her detention at Iran’s hideous Evin prison, where she is reportedly held in a freezing cold cell with permanent neon lighting. Her eyeglasses were also confiscated and she has been denied access to “comfort items” supplied by the Italian embassy.
The Iranian embassy in Rome responded by explicitly linking Sala’s kidnapping to Abedini for the first time, stating that the Italian reporter could be released on “humanitarian grounds” if Italy halts extradition proceedings against Abedini and releases him.
Sala’s parents on Friday asked the media to scale back coverage of the case so that negotiations between the Italian and Iranian governments can proceed.
“To try to bring her home, our government has mobilized to the maximum, and now, in addition to the efforts of the Italian authorities, confidentiality and discretion are also necessary,” Sala’s parents said.
“The stage we have reached is, however, very delicate, and the feeling is that the great media debate on what can or should be done risks prolonging the times and making a solution more complicated and distant,” they said.
Iran has made very little pretense that Sala is anything but a hostage so far, but Italian officials are reportedly worried the Iranians will manufacture formal charges and slap her with a lengthy prison sentence if they do not quickly agree to release Abedini. The Italian Embassy in Tehran said on Wednesday the Iranians have provided a list of Iranian lawyers who might serve as Sala’s defense attorney.
Atlantic Council senior fellow Beniamino Irdi told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Friday that Iran risking its diplomatic relationship with Italy by grabbing an Italian journalist was a desperate move.
“Iran has become a lot weaker in the past year, and this episode reflects it. It has become more aggressive, and less careful than it used to be about the nuances of its relations with U.S. allies such as Italy. It’s more prone now to using them in its game with the U.S.,” Irdi said.
“We have been living in the bliss of our traditional belief that everybody loves Italy, instead of having a real foreign policy. In such a polarized world, a real foreign policy means picking a side and paying a price. Now we risk paying a price on both sides,” he added.
Irdi was referring to the sense among Italian officials that if they want to make a deal to free Sala in exchange for Abedini, they have to move quickly, before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is hoping for a good relationship with Trump, and would therefore be reluctant to anger him by releasing a dangerous Iranian linked to deadly terrorism against U.S. service members after he takes office. On the other hand, Meloni is under considerable pressure from her own constituents to bring Sala home.
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