Iran releases Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, who has been detained for three weeks without explanation

Rome – An Italian journalist detained in Iran for three weeks and whose fate became intertwined with that of an Iranian engineer wanted by the United States was released Wednesday and is returning home, Italian officials announced.

A plane that carries Cecilia Hall left Tehran after “intense work on diplomatic and intelligence channels”, the office of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said, adding that Meloni had informed Sala’s parents of the news.

Iranian media acknowledged the journalist’s release, citing only foreign reports. Iranian officials had no immediate comment.

Sala, a 29-year-old reporter for Il Foglio daily, was arrested in Tehran on December 19, three days after she arrived on a journalist’s visa. She was accused of violating the laws of the Islamic Republic, the official IRNA news agency said, but no details of her alleged transgressions were ever provided by Iranian officials.

Word of Sala’s release was greeted with cheers in Italy, where her plight dominated the headlines as lawmakers hailed successful negotiations to bring her home.

It came after Meloni made a surprise trip to Florida last weekend to meet US President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Meloni tweeted Sala’s return in a statement on X in which he thanked “everyone who helped make Cecilia’s return possible, allowing her to reunite with her family and colleagues.”

Italian commentators speculated that Iran was holding Sala as a bargaining chip to secure the release of Mohammad Abedini, who had been arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport three days earlier on December 16, on a warrant the United States. Iranian analysts who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity said the same thing.

The US Department of Justice accused Abedini and another Iranian of providing drone technology to Iran that was used in a January 2024 attack on a US outpost in Jordan that killed three American troops. He remains in detention in Italy.

Their fates became a diplomatic entanglement as the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of each country called the ambassador of the other to demand the release of the prisoners and decent conditions. The saga was particularly complicated for Italy, which is a historical ally of Washington but traditionally maintains good relations with Tehran.

Since the 1979 US Embassy Crisiswhich saw dozens of hostages released after 444 days in captivity, Iran used prisoners with Western ties as bargaining chips in negotiations with the world.

In September 2023, five Americans detained for years in Iran have been released in exchange for five Iranians in US custody and $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets to be released by South Korea.

Western journalists have also been detained in the past. Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian was held for more than 540 days before being released in 2016 in a prisoner exchange between Iran and the United States