Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, who was arrested on 19 December in Iran for "violating 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,” said the government services in a statement published late this morning. "The plane repatriating journalist Cecilia Sala took off a few minutes ago."
The 29-year-old Sala, who works for Italian newspaper Il Foglio and runs a well-known podcast, was arrested on 19 December in the Iranian capital Tehran on charges of violating media law.
However, it was widely reported to have been a reciprocal arrest after Italy arrested an Iranian national who was under a US international arrest warrant.
Sala was held in a single cell in Evin prison, the largest and most notorious of the Iranian capital's prisons where foreign nationals and political dissidents are locked up.
Her conditions were described by her family to have been difficult. She was made to sleep on the floor and given only two blankets in cold conditions. Despite having been visited in prison by the Italian Ambassador Paola Amedei, the supplies given to the embassy were not given to Sala until much later.
