The detained journalist returns to Italy.
The Italian journalist Cecilia Salova, detained for almost three weeks in an Iranian prison, has been released and is returning home. This was announced on Wednesday by the office of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, reports TASR according to the AFP and ANSA agencies.
“The plane carrying journalist Cecilia Salová left Tehran a few minutes ago” after “intensive work on diplomatic and intelligence lines”, specified the Prime Minister’s office. The plane with the journalist should land in Rome at 3:30 p.m. local time.
Salová (29) is a correspondent for Il Foglio and a podcast author. She arrived in Iran on December 13 on a journalist’s visa, while on December 19 she was detained for allegedly violating the laws there. This was stated by the local Ministry of Culture, which is in charge of accreditation and supervision of foreign journalists in the country.
Salova’s detention took place a few days after a Swiss-Iranian businessman was detained at Milan airport on the basis of a US arrest warrant. The US extradited him for allegedly supplying parts to drones that were to be used in an attack in Jordan in January 2023, when three American soldiers were killed, ANSA reminds.
Salová last published on the social network X on December 17 a link to her podcast called “Conversation about patriarchy in Tehran”. She previously also worked as a correspondent in Ukraine, where she reported on the war with Russia, an ally of Iran.
