In a small isolation cell, with the light always on, without a mattress and with two blankets, one to put on the floor and the other to protect herself from the inclement cold. These are the conditions in which the Italian reporter Cecilia Sala has been detained since December 19 in the Evin prison, the symbol prison of repression in Iran.
The journalist, 29 years old, who works for the newspaper Il Foglio and the podcast platform Chora Media, was arrested when she was about to leave Tehran to return to Italy after more than a week of work for which she had been granted a regular journalistic visa issued by the Iranian embassy in Italy.
It was not the first time that Sala visited the country. The reporter — who has been covering international news for years, from the return of the Taliban to Kabul in 2021 to the Russian invasion of Ukraine — had decided to return now to do some reports on how the scenario in Iran was changing after the fall of the regime. Bashar al Assad in Syria. Shortly after the news of his arrest was made public on December 27, suspicion began to circulate, picked up by the Italian press, of the link between his arrest and the case of a citizen with dual Iranian and Swiss nationality, Mohammad. Abedini Najafabad, detained at Milan’s Malpensa airport on December 16.
Abedini, who is an engineer, was subject to an arrest warrant from the United States, which requests his extradition and accuses him of having delivered, in violation of sanctions, American technology for the manufacture of drones to the Revolutionary Guard, which Washington considers a terrorist organization. . Drones like the ones that killed three US soldiers in Jordan last January.
The engineer rejects the accusations. “I am an academic, a scholar. I am certainly not a terrorist. “I don’t understand this arrest,” he said, according to what his lawyer told the local press, who visited him along with the Iranian consul in the Opera prison in Milan. Regarding his request for house arrest, the Milan Prosecutor General’s Office expressed its unfavorable opinion this Thursday. And the decision is now in the hands of the judges in a hearing that will be held no earlier than 10 days.
While the US has confirmed the extradition request, a State Department spokesperson commented on Sala’s case to the newspaper La Repubblica: “Unfortunately, the Iranian regime continues to unjustly detain citizens of many other countries, often to use them as political leverage. . There is no justification for this and they must be released immediately. “Journalists carry out vital work of informing the public, often in dangerous conditions, and must be protected.”
The spokesperson added that they were aware of the case of Sala’s arrest. “An arrest that comes after that of an Iranian citizen in Italy on December 16 for smuggling drone components. “We call for the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners arbitrarily detained in Iran and without just cause,” the spokesperson added.
“You have to hurry”
The alarms went off again this Wednesday after Sala’s family received the journalist’s second call from prison. If in the first she was barely able to provide information, in this second, the reporter gave more details about the harsh conditions of her detention and denied the information – confirmed this week by the Italian Foreign Ministry – that she had been given a package with personal hygiene items, four books, cigarettes, sweets and chocolate, which the Italian ambassador in Tehran had left during the only visit, of about 30 minutes, that Sala has received since December 19.
Not only was no package delivered, but his glasses were also seized. The message that the journalist repeated is that “we must hurry” to achieve his release.
Evin prison, located north of Tehran, is known for being the center where political opponents, journalists and foreign citizens are imprisoned and for numerous reports of abuse and torture, denounced by international organizations. like Amnesty International. In the two sections, one male and one female, there are either overcrowded cells or individual isolation cells.
Tehran did not confirm the journalist’s arrest until Monday with a statement from the Ministry of Culture in which it is said, with a very generic accusation, that it occurred for “having violated the laws of the Islamic Republic.”
After days of discreet movements and after the call received by the family on Wednesday, the Italian Foreign Minister and Vice President of the Government, Antonio Tajani, ordered this Thursday the summoning of the Iranian ambassador in Rome. After an hour-long meeting, the Ministry issued a note explaining that the Secretary General of Foreign Affairs, Riccardo Guariglia, “first requested the immediate release of his compatriot, who arrived in Iran with a regular journalistic visa.” Guariglia “also reiterated the request that decent detention conditions be guaranteed, with respect for human rights and that full consular assistance be assured to the compatriot, allowing the Italian Embassy in Tehran to visit her and provide her with comfort items. that have been denied until now.”
In a message in X, The Iranian embassy in Rome spoke this Thursday of a “friendly discussion” in which both the cases of Sala and Abedini were discussed. The text reads: “Ms. Sala has been provided with all the necessary facilities, including repeated telephone contact with her loved ones, and it is expected that the Italian Government, reciprocally, in addition to accelerating the release of the detained Iranian citizen, will provide the care facilities you need.”
Meanwhile, the president of the Council of Ministers, Giorgia Meloni, called this Thursday at Palazzo Chigi a meeting on the case with Tajani, the undersecretary of the Presidency of the Council, with delegate to the intelligence services, Alfredo Mantovano, and the Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio. The prime minister also met with Sala’s mother, Elisabetta Vernoni. “The first concern now is absolutely the conditions of my daughter’s life in prison. There was talk of an individual cell. There are no individual cells. There are regular detention cells and then there are punishment cells. Obviously, she is in one of these,” he said in statements collected by the ANSA agency.
“So the first thing is more dignified conditions of prison life and then important decisions and strength of our country to think about the return to Italy, about which I do not cry, I do not complain and I do not ask for time, because they are very peculiar realities” , he added. “Cecilia tries to be a soldier, I try to be one. But the prison conditions for a 29-year-old girl who has done nothing must be such that they cannot mark her for life.”
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