Italy says working to free journalist under arrest in Iran for over a week
Al JazeeraCecilia Sala, 29, who works for Il Foglio and Chora Media, was arrested in Tehran on December 19, authorities said. The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said in a statement that it was “working with the Iranian authorities to clarify Cecilia Sala’s legal situation and to verify the conditions of her detention”. Defence Minister Guido Crosetto – a key figure in Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government – said on the social media platform X that the arrest was “unacceptable”. Italy’s ambassador to Iran visited Sala in prison on Friday and the journalist has also been in phone contact with her family, the Italian Foreign Ministry said. Chora said news of Sala’s arrest was not immediately made public as her family and Italian authorities had hoped that keeping it quiet could help secure her swift release.