The arrest of Italian journalist
Cecilia Sala in Iran on December 19 was not in retaliation for
the detention three days earlier in Milan of Iranian citizen
Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi under a US warrant, Iranian
government spokesman Fatemeh Mohajerani was quoted as saying on
Tuesday by Iran's ISNA news agency.
"Sala's arrest is not related to any other issue", Mohajerani
was quoted as saying by ISNA.
"I hope her problem will be solved", he added.
On Monday, Iran said Sala's detention in Tehran on charges of
breaking Islamic law had nothing to do with the December 16
arrest at a Milan airport of Iranian engineer Abedini on US
charges of exporting drone parts allegedly used to kill three US
servicemen in Jordan a year ago.
Sala, a 29-year-old Il Foglio freelance reporter and Chora News
podcaster, is being held in isolation in Tehran's notorious Evin
Prison.
Premier Giorgia Meloni discussed the case with US
President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago Sunday and, according
to the New York Times, "pressed hard" as part of Italian
government efforts to try to achieve Sala's release.
A hearing at the Court of Appeal of Milan has been scheduled on
January 15 to examine a request for house arrest for the Iranian
engineer, whose alleged accomplice, Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, and
Iranian naturalised American, was arrested in the US also on
December 16.
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