Iran frees Italian journalist Cecilia Sala in major win for Meloni

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has secured the release of a jailed journalist from Iran amid fears of a lengthy hostage crisis.

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, right, welcomes journalist Cecilia Sala upon arriving in Rome. Picture: Palazzo Chigi press office/AFP

Iran released Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, whose arrest in Tehran last month had sparked fears of a lengthy hostage crisis – a win for Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni that however highlights Western countries’ vulnerability to blackmail by authoritarian regimes.

Iranian authorities confirmed Sala’s release.

Meloni greeted the 29-year-old when she arrived in Italy on Wednesday.

As part of the deal, Italy was expected to release Iranian businessman Mohammad Abedini, whom the US wants extradited on charges of supplying drone technology to Iran’s military.

Meloni, who has maintained strict secrecy over the negotiations with Iran, was expected to inform other senior Italian officials on Wednesday about how the second phase of the deal would work, an Italian government official said.

Some Italian judicial officials said they expected Abedini to be released from Milan’s Opera Prison with a time delay, but possibly in the coming days – a move that Italy’s Justice Minister Carlo Nordio can order.

No official order has been given yet, however, these judicial and government officials said.

Cecilia Sala is all smiles upon touching down at Rome’s Ciampino Airport, after being arrested and jailed in Iran since December. Picture: Palazzo Chigi press office/AFP

Italy arrested Abedini on December 16 on behalf of the US, which accuses him of supplying navigation technology for drones to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a US-designated terrorist organisation.

Drones using the same technology were used by Iranian-backed militants in an attack that killed three US soldiers and wounded more than 40 more in Jordan a year ago, the US Justice Department said.

Iran’s government said the allegations against Abedini were false.

On December 19, Iran arrested Sala, who was reporting from Tehran on an officially approved journalist’s visa.

Iranian authorities never said what they accused her of beyond “breaking the laws of the Islamic Republic”.

Iran denied it was in retaliation for Abedini’s arrest but few in Italy believed it.

The release of Sala, a well-known globetrotting foreign correspondent for the newspaper Il Foglio and a popular podcaster, is a victory for Meloni, who had promised Sala’s family that she would make every effort to secure her return quickly.

The harsh conditions of Sala’s solitary confinement in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, where she was sleeping on the floor of a cold and bare cell, had increased domestic pressure on Meloni to reach a deal quickly.

Meloni knew that Abedini’s release as part of a prisoner swap risks irritating the US, including incoming President Donald Trump, who is expected to renew his policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran.

Meloni flew to Florida on Saturday to meet Trump and explain to him that freeing Sala was an Italian national interest and that Italy would have to turn down the US’s extradition request for Abedini.

Italian officials returned from Florida confident that Meloni had secured Trump’s understanding.

Neither Trump nor Meloni commented publicly about the matter.

Sala is embraced by her parents in Rome after the journalist was released in a swap deal with Iran. Picture: Palazzo Chigi press office/AFP

The meeting underscored the warm relations between Trump and the right-wing Italian leader, who is expected to be one of Trump’s favoured interlocutors in Europe.

Italy’s foreign intelligence service took charge of the negotiations with Tehran, using its diplomatic back channels with Iran’s intelligence ministry, according to people familiar with the matter.

In recent days Sala was moved to a less-spartan cell, and an Iranian government spokeswoman on Tuesday expressed hope for a quick resolution of her case, raising hopes in Italy that an agreement was close.

The departing Biden administration, asked about the Sala-Abedini case, said it is determined to stop Iran’s effort to secure advanced drone technology.

President Joe Biden is due to visit Rome this week, the last foreign trip of his presidency, and is expected to meet Meloni, Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Pope Francis.

Iran has for years detained Western citizens as bargaining chips to secure concessions from the US and European countries, including the release of Iranians jailed in the West for terrorism, money laundering or other charges.

Russia has emulated the tactic, including in its arrest in 2023 of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was freed in August as part of a prisoner swap.

Western countries have struggled to respond to the practice.

Iranian government officials have long claimed the judiciary works independently and they can’t interfere in judicial cases.

Over the past year, Iran has released several European detainees, some of them in prisoner swaps.

-Wall Street Journal