Iran releases the Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, who was held for 3 weeks without any explanation

Rome — An Italian journalist held in Iran for three weeks and whose fate was intertwined with that of an Iranian engineer wanted by the United States was released on Wednesday and is on his way home, Italian officials announced.

The plane it carries Cecilia Sala flew from Tehran after “intensive work on diplomatic and intelligence channels,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office said, adding that Meloni had informed Sala’s parents of the news.

Iranian media confirmed the release of the journalists, citing only foreign reports. Iranian officials did not immediately comment.

Sala, a 29-year-old reporter for Il Foglio daily, was detained in Tehran on December 19, three days after she arrived on a journalist’s visa. She has been charged with violating the laws of the Islamic Republic, the official IRNA news agency reported, but Iranian officials have never provided any details about her alleged transgressions.

News of Sala’s release was met with enthusiasm in Italy, where her condition dominated the headlines as lawmakers hailed successful negotiations to bring her home.

This comes after Meloni made a surprise trip to Florida last weekend to meet with US President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Meloni tweeted Sala’s return in a statement on X in which she thanked “all those who helped make Cecilia’s return possible, allowing her to hug her family and colleagues again.”

Italian commentators speculated that Iran was holding Sala as a bargaining chip to secure the release of Mohammad Abedini, who had been arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport three days earlier on December 16 on a US warrant. Iranian analysts who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity said the same.

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged Abedini and another Iranian with supplying drone technology to Iran that was used in the January 2024 attack on a U.S. outpost in Jordan. killed three American soldiers. He is still in custody in Italy.

Their fates turned into a diplomatic tangle as each country’s foreign ministry called the other’s ambassador to demand the release of the prisoners and decent conditions. The saga has been particularly complicated for Italy, which is a historic ally of Washington but has traditionally maintained good relations with Tehran.

Since it is The 1979 American Embassy Crisisin which dozens of hostages were freed after 444 days of captivity, Iran used prisoners with Western ties as bargaining chips in negotiations with the world.

In September 2023, Fri Americans who had been imprisoned in Iran for years were released in exchange for five Iranians in US custody and $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets to be released by South Korea.

Western journalists have also been detained in the past. Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian was held for more than 540 days before being released 2016 in a prisoner exchange between Iran and the US