The Italian journalist Cecilia Salain Iran to provide journalistic services, was arrested on December 19 most recently by the police authorities in Tehran. This is what Farnesina announced. Sala is incarcerated in Evin prison, a symbol of the regime’s political repression.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announces that Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, in Iran to produce journalistic reports, was arrested on December 19 by police authorities in Tehran. By order of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, the Italian embassy and consulate in Tehran have been following the case with the greatest attention since the beginning.. In coordination with the Council Presidency, Farnesina worked with the Iranian authorities to clarify the legal situation of Cecilia Sala and verify the conditions of her detention.” This was communicated by Farnesina.
“Today Italian Ambassador Paola Amadei made a consular visit to check the conditions and state of detention by Dr Sala. The family was informed of the results of the consular visit. Previously, Dr. Sala had the opportunity to make two phone calls with relatives. In agreement with the journalist’s parents, Farnesina invites the press to exercise the greatest discretion to facilitate a rapid and positive resolution of the case.
Deputy Prime Minister Tajani told RaiNews24: “Cecilia Sala is well and we are working to bring her back to Italy”
The Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto he wrote on social media: “the entire government, first and foremost President Giorgia Meloni and Minister Tajani, asked for his release. Everyone who could and can be useful in achieving this goal got to work,” he added. According to Crosetto “Unfortunately, negotiations with Iran cannot be resolved with the participation of Western public opinion. and with the force of popular indignation, but only with high-level political and diplomatic action. Italy is working tirelessly for his liberation, taking all paths.”
The Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto he wrote on social media: “the entire government, first and foremost President Giorgia Meloni and Minister Tajani, asked for his release. Everyone who could and can be useful in achieving this goal got to work,” he added. According to Crosetto “Unfortunately, negotiations with Iran cannot be resolved with the participation of Western public opinion. and with the force of popular indignation, but only with high-level political and diplomatic action. Italy is working tirelessly for his liberation, taking all paths.”
Sala has been there for a week isolation cell” of Evin, “where dissidents are detained”. This is what he reports Cryingthe Italian podcast company for which the journalist creates ‘Storiesstressing that “the reason for his arrest has not yet been made official”.
The journalist left Rome for Iran on December 12 with “a regular journalistic visa and the protections of a traveling journalist”, specifies the editor. He had done a series of interviews and produced three episodes of the podcast. His return to Rome was planned for on December 20, but on the morning of the 19th, after an exchange of messages, his phone went silent.
“Knowing Cecilia, who always sent the audio of the podcast episodes with extreme punctuality even from the Ukrainian front in the most difficult times, we became concerned and, together with her partner, Post journalist Daniele Raineri, we alerted to the crisis in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We called her Iranian contacts, but no one knew where she had landed. Friday morning, she did not board the return flight and the situation became even more worrying,” her colleagues explained.
“A few hours later, her phone came back on: Cecilia called her mother and told her that she had been arrested, taken to prison, and that she had been allowed to make a brief phone call. He couldn’t say anything else. From that moment on, the activity of the Italian authorities began, in whom we place all our trust and with whom we are in constant contact, to understand what happened and bring her home. It was only after eight days, on Friday December 27, that Cecilia was able to see the Italian ambassador to Tehran in prison. Cecilia Sala is a professional journalist who works for Chora News and for The leafand she was in Iran to do her job with the scrupulousness, care, passion and professionalism that everyone recognizes. His free voice has been silenced and Italy and Europe cannot tolerate this arbitrary arrest. Cecilia Sala must be released immediately. #FreeCecilia.”
The director of Chora Media, Mario Calabresitold RaiNews24 that Sala was allowed, with a very short first phone call, to read just one message. It was only later that Sala was able to speak for a few more seconds with her mother and her partner.
The journalist and writer is a great foreign expert, also a collaborator of Leaf. He is one of the most active and followed journalists on social networks, with more than 400,000 followers on Instagram.
She had been to Iran several times, she knew how to get around, what she could do and how far to go. He had a regular journalist visa, lasting around ten days. during which he had already published some reports on the evolving scenario in Iran after the fall of Assad in Syria.
Amnesty International: “Release Sala immediately”
“We are following the matter carefully. We hope that she will be released from prison and can return to her work as a journalist as quickly as possible, as is her right. Journalism is not a crime. He says it Riccardo Noury, spokesperson for Amnesty International Italy.
Concern and solidarity expressed by the entire political world, by party leaders and human rights activists, from Patrick Zaki to Anpi.
National Press Federation and International Federation: “She is immediately released without conditions”
The National Federation of the Italian Press In the meantime, she activates all her contacts to find out the conditions and situation of the journalist. The union demands that “his colleague Cecilia Sala be released immediately”,
The International Federation of Journalists (FIJ) joins the FNSI in calling on the Iranian authorities to release the journalist “immediately and unconditionally”. “We deplore the Iranian strategy of imprisoning foreign journalists to get something in return. Our Italian colleague Cecilia Sala – declares the general secretary of the Ifj, Anthony Bellanger – is the latest victim of this macabre practice. We call on the international community to put pressure on the Iranian authorities to immediately release the journalist. »
The blogger also spent 45 days in Evin prison Alessia Pipernohad been accused of espionage. He told RaiNews.it: “This prison should not exist, it was scary. »
Today in Ansa Piperno said: “Ideally I tell Cecilia Sala to hold on like I did for 45 days: in Evina prison we foreigners do not hurt each other physically, but mentally they try you a lot. I know the terror of being alone in a cell. I hug his parents, I imagine their pain which is similar to the pain I felt.
