Iran takes Italian journalist hostage, demands prisoner exchange

The Italian government summoned the Iranian ambassador on Thursday to demand the release of journalist Cecilia Sala, arrested without due process or clear charges in Tehran on December 19.

Iran responded that Sala would only be released if Italy released Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, an Iranian national arrested by Italy on behalf of the United States on December 16.

Abedini, 38, is a drone expert accused of supplying cutting-edge technology to the Iranian military in defiance of U.S. sanctions. The components supplied by Abedini were allegedly used in a January 2024 drone attack by Iran-backed militants that killed three U.S. service members in northern Jordan.

Abedini’s company, San’at Danesh Rahpooyan Aflak (SDRA), specializes in creating navigation modules for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The company supplies these modules to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), designated a foreign terrorist organization by the US government in 2019.

Abedini was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on December 16 for conspiring with Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, a dual U.S.-Iranian national, to illegally acquire electronic components from U.S. companies for use by the IRGC.

Abedini was promptly arrested at an airport in Milan, Italy, at the request of the United States, while Sadeghi was detained in Massachusetts.

Three days later, Iran arrested Cecilia Sala, 29, journalist who writes for the Italian newspaper The fog and hosts a current affairs podcast. She went to Tehran on December 13 on a journalist’s visa. She was arrested the day before returning to Italy and vaguely accused of “violating the laws of the Islamic Republic.”

Sala’s last podcast, published the day before his arrest, was about an Iranian actress named Zeynab Mousavi, who was arrested in October 2023 for speaking out against Iranian laws requiring women to cover their heads. The podcast episode was title “A conversation about patriarchy in Tehran.”

Mousavi spoke at a time when Iran’s brutal regime was grappling with nationwide protests over the killing of a young Kurdish woman named Mahsa Amini, kidnapped by Iran’s “morality police” because she did not wear her headscarf correctly and was allegedly beaten to death.

When Sala’s arrest was revealed, some speculated that she had angered the Iranian regime by discussing Mousavi’s fate on her podcast, but it soon became likely that she had been taken hostage by the Iranians to obtain Abedini’s release.

The Italian Foreign Ministry on Thursday summoned Iran’s ambassador is to demand Sala’s release and express “grave concerns” about the conditions of her detention in Iran’s horrific Evin prison, where she is reportedly held in a freezing cell with constant neon lighting. Her glasses were also confiscated and she was denied access to “comfort items” provided by the Italian embassy.

The Iranian Embassy in Rome replied explicitly linking Sala’s kidnapping to Abedini for the first time, stating that the Italian journalist could be released on “humanitarian grounds” if Italy halted extradition proceedings against Abedini and released him.

Sala’s parents asked the media on Friday to reduce coverage of the case so that negotiations between the Italian and Iranian governments could continue.

“To try to bring her home, our government has mobilized to the maximum and now, in addition to the efforts of the Italian authorities, confidentiality and discretion are also necessary,” said Sala’s parents.

“The stage we have reached is, however, very delicate, and the feeling is that the great media debate about what can or should be done risks extending the deadlines and making the solution more complicated and more distant,” they said .

Iran has so far made little claim that Sala was anything other than a hostage, but Italian officials reportedly fear the Iranians will fabricate formal charges and sentence her to a lengthy prison term if they do not quickly agree to release Abedini. The Italian embassy in Tehran said Wednesday that the Iranians had provided a list of Iranian lawyers who could serve as Sala’s defense counsel.

Beniamino Irdi, Atlantic Council Senior Fellow said THE The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Friday that Iran risking its diplomatic relations with Italy by arresting an Italian journalist was a desperate decision.

“Iran has become much weaker over the past year, and this episode reflects that. He has become more aggressive and less cautious than before about the nuances of his dealings with U.S. allies like Italy. He is now more inclined to use them in his game with the United States,” Irdi said.

“We live in the bliss of our traditional belief that everyone loves Italy, instead of having a real foreign policy. In such a polarized world, true foreign policy means choosing sides and paying the price. Now we risk paying the price on both sides,” he added.

Irdi was referring to the feeling among Italian officials that if they want to strike a deal to release Sala in exchange for Abedini, they must act quickly, before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hopes to maintain good relations with Trump and would therefore be reluctant to anger him by releasing a dangerous Iranian linked to deadly terrorism against the US military after he takes office. On the other hand, Meloni is under considerable pressure from her own voters to bring Sala home.