ROME (ITALPRESS) – Italian reporter Cecilia Sala, in Iran to carry out news reports, was detained Dec. 19 by Tehran police authorities. This was announced by the Foreign Ministry.
On the instructions of Minister Antonio Tajani, the Italian embassy and consulate in Tehran have been following the case closely since its inception. In coordination with the Council Presidency, Farnesina has been working with Iranian authorities to clarify Cecilia Sala’s legal situation and to verify the conditions of her detention.
On December 27, Ambassador Paola Amadei conducted a consular visit to verify the conditions and status of her detention. The family was informed of the results of the consular visit. Sala had previously had the opportunity to make two phone calls with relatives.
“He is in good health, he is in a single cell. We can’t say anything else at the moment, we are monitoring the situation very carefully. We will see what the charges are. The government is working with the utmost discretion to try to bring her back to Italy,” Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told Rainews24. “We have acted with discretion, we agree with the family who asked us to keep the situation confidential. We are now working with the Foreign Ministry and our consulate in tune with the Council presidency,” he added.
“Cecilia Sala is a professional journalist working for Chora News and Il Foglio, and she was in Iran to do her work with the scrupulousness, care, passion and professionalism that everyone recognizes. Her free voice has been silenced, and Italy and Europe cannot tolerate this arbitrary arrest. Cecilia Sala must be freed immediately.” Thus in a lengthy post on social media the podcast production company Chora Media with which the Italian journalist works. “Cecilia Sala was arrested in Tehran on Thursday, December 19, and has been detained in an isolation cell for a week. She was taken to Evin Prison, where dissidents are held, and the reason for her arrest has not yet been formalized. We are only making this terrible news public now because the Italian authorities and Cecilia’s parents had asked us to be silent, a silence that hopefully would lead to a quick release. Which unfortunately has not yet been there,” the post continues.
Chora Media then lays out all the stages of the affair. “Cecilia had left on December 12 from Rome for Iran on a regular journalistic visa and the protections of a traveling journalist. She had done a series of interviews and produced three episodes of Chora News’ Stories podcast. She was supposed to return to Rome on December 20, but on the morning of the 19th, after an exchange of messages, her phone went silent. Knowing Cecilia, who always sent recordings for the podcast episodes with extreme punctuality even from the Ukrainian front during the most difficult moments, we became concerned and, together with her partner, Post journalist Daniele Raineri, we alerted the Foreign Ministry’s Crisis Unit. We called her Iranian contacts, but no one knew where she ended up,” Chora recounts. On Friday morning she did not board her return flight and the situation became even more distressing. A few hours later her phone turned back on: Cecilia called her mother and told her that she had been arrested, taken to jail, and that she had been allowed to make a brief phone call. That was all she could say. From that moment began the work of the Italian authorities, in whom we place all our trust and with whom we are in constant contact, to understand what happened and to bring her home. Only after eight days, on Friday, December 27, was Cecilia able to receive a visit in prison from the Italian ambassador to Tehran, Paola Amadei.”
– Photo Agency Photogram –
(ITALPRESS).
