The Italian government said on Friday that a journalist from the country had been detained by Iranian authorities for a week and that the circumstances of her detention remained unclear. The Italian Foreign Ministry is working with Iranian officials to “clarify the legal situation of Cecilia Sala and review the conditions of her detention,” the ministry said in a statement.
Sala was there Iran She was reporting for the Italian newspaper Il Foglio when she was arrested on December 19, according to an article published on Friday. In the article, the newspaper’s editor called for her immediate release, saying: “Journalism is not a crime.”
“Cecilia was in Iran on a regular visa to tell the story of a country she knows and loves, a country where information is stifled by repression, threats, intimidation, violence and imprisonment, often against journalists themselves,” said Claudio, editor of Il Foglio Cerasa said in the article.
Elena Di Vincenzo/Elena Di Vincenzo Archive/Mondadori Portfolio/Getty
He said the newspaper decided to publish an article about Sala’s detention only after it received “assurances from the heads of our diplomacy that informing readers of the news of her arrest would aid diplomatic efforts to bring her home.” “wouldn’t slow down.”
As of Friday, the Iranian government had not acknowledged Sala’s arrest, and none of the country’s official media reported it. Some Iranian analysts who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity noted that Sala may have been arrested to use him as a bargaining chip in negotiations over two Iranian nationals arrested in Italy in recent months on alleged charges Sanctions violators were arrested.
In his statementThe Italian Foreign Ministry said Sala was arrested by Tehran police “while he was in Iran to provide journalistic services.” The ministry said Italian Ambassador Paola Amadei made a consular visit to Sala “to review the conditions and state of detention.”
The ministry did not confirm that she was being held in the notorious Evin prison outside Tehran, Il Foglio reported. Her family was “informed of the results of the consular visit,” without providing further details.
Regardless of the reason for their detention or the charges ultimately brought against Sala, the Islamic clerics who rule Iran have a well-established track record Silencing dissent.
All media in the country are strictly controlled by the government. Street protests against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sparked by Anger over the murder of a young woman in police custody And draconian enforcement of religious commandmentshave been forcibly lifted more than once in recent years.
Sala’s latest Article published in Il Foglio was a political analysis that examined the impact on Khamenei’s regime dramatic fall of Iran’s close ally in Syriathe dictator Bashar al-Assad.
