Cecilia Sala.Image: www.imago-images.de
Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, arrested in Iran in the context of a dark story involving an EPFL researcher, has been released.
08.01.2025, 12:1408.01.2025, 12:20
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Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, arrested on December 19 in Iran for having “violated the laws” of the Islamic Republic, has been released and is being repatriated, the Italian government announced on Wednesday.
“Our compatriot has been released by the Iranian authorities and is returning to Italy,” government services said in a press release published late in the morning. “The plane repatriating journalist Cecilia Sala took off a few minutes ago.”
This release is the result of “intense work through diplomatic and intelligence channels”, underlines the press release. The head of the Italian government “Giorgia Meloni expresses her gratitude to all those who contributed to making Cecilia’s return possible, allowing her to reunite with her family and colleagues.”
A case of killer drones
The journalist was arrested in Tehran during a professional stay on a journalistic visa, but the Iranian authorities have never communicated the precise reasons for this arrest.
However, leads lead to a case of Iranian killer drones. The young woman, who was, in fact, initially due to return to Italy on December 20, was arrested a few days after the arrests in the United States and Italy of two Iranians suspected by the American courts of transfer of sensitive technologies linked to the EPFL.
Mohammed Abedini Najafabadi, former post-doctoral researcher at EPFL, is said to have supplied weapons components to Iran, with the possible complicity of other people in Lausanne, according to American documents.
Cecilia Sala, 29, has since been in a cell in Evin prison in Tehran. The journalist works for Chora Media, a site publishing podcasts, as well as for the daily Il Foglio. (jah with ats)
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