ROME: Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Thursday summoned the Iranian ambassador over the detention of an Italian journalist in Tehran two weeks ago, demanding her release.
Cecilia Sala, 29, was arrested on December 19, days after the United States and Italy arrested two Iranian nationals over export violations linked to a deadly attack on American servicemen.
The journalist, who writes for the Italian daily Il Foglio, has been kept in isolation since then.
The foreign ministry’s secretary-general Riccardo Guariglia discussed her case with Iran’s ambassador Mohammad Reza Sabouri, said a foreign ministry statement.
Italy “requested the immediate release” of Sala, “who arrived in Iran with a regular journalist visa,” it added.
“The government, as it has from the first day of Cecilia Sala’s arrest, is working tirelessly to bring her home, and we demand that all her rights be respected,” Tajani wrote.
“We will not leave Cecilia and her parents’ side until her release.” Sala travelled to Iran on December 13 on a journalist’s visa. She was arrested six days later for “violating the law of the Islamic Republic of Iran”, said the country’s culture ministry, which oversees and accredits foreign journalists.
In a phone call with her family on Wednesday, she told her family she had been sleeping on the floor in a cell with the lights permanently on, Italian media reported.
Rome’s ambassador to Tehran, Paola Amadei, has visited Sala but a care package she gave officials for the Italian reporter has not been passed on to her, Italian media said. — AFP
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