Cecilia Sala’s family requests press blackout, "delicate phase"

The pressure from the Italian authorities continues to obtain the release of Cecilia Sala, detained in Evin prison in Tehran after being arrested on 19 December in the Iranian capital. The ambassador of Italy to the Islamic Republic, Paola Amadei, iswas received this morning by the Director General of Europe of the Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tehran. As far as we know, Amadei has renewed his request for Sala’s immediate release and for dignified detention conditions.

What is worrying are the news on the journalist’s state of imprisonment: one Very small cell always lit, no mattress nor eye mask. Rome has asked Tehran to guarantee conditions respectful of human rights to the Hall and full consular assistance, in addition to ensuring the delivery of the comfort items that have so far been denied. “We will see what the Iranians will say but we cannot accept that there is a condition of detention of Cecilia Sala that is not respectful of the rights of the person and for this reason we are once again asking for her immediate release”, remarked Tajani

Yesterday an emergency summit was therefore convened at Palazzo Chigi at the end of which Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni telephoned the father of the twenty-nine year old and received her mother Elisabetta Vernoni.

“The ambassador asked for a second consular visit and Cecilia Sala had the opportunity to make calls to her family more than once, but this is not enough, her rights need to be respected in the cell, such as a bed and the possibility of read”, added the head of the Farnesina, recalling that the journalist’s glasses were even taken off. The deputy prime minister hoped for “not too long a timescale” for Sala’s release from prison. “We are doing everything in our power. The Presidency of the Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the intelligence, we are all working 24 hours a day to bring Cecilia home”, assured Tajani.

The family requests press blackout

“The situation of our daughter, Cecilia Sala, locked in a prison in Tehran for 16 days, is complicated and very worrying. To try to bring her home, our government has mobilized to the maximum and is now needed in addition to the efforts of the Italian authorities also confidentiality and discretion”, declare in a note the journalist’s parents, Elisabetta Vernoni and Renato Sala, who are now asking for press silence on the case of their daughter who has been detained in Iran since 19 December.

“In recent days we have felt the affection, attention and solidarity of Italian men and women and of the world of information and we are very grateful for everything that is being done. The phase we have reached is, however, very delicate and the feeling is that the great media debate on what can or should be done risks prolonging the time and making a solution more complicated and distant”, continues the note, “for this reason we have decided to abstain from comments and statements and we appeal to the media asking for the press silence. We will be grateful for the sense of responsibility that everyone will want to show in avoiding disclosing sensitive and delicate news.”

Abedini: “I will pray for Cecilia Sala”

As for the links with the case of Mohammad Abedini, the 38-year-old Iranian arrested on December 16 in Malpensa at the request of the United States, “it is up to the judiciary to decide whether or not to grant house arrest to this Swiss-Iranian citizen who was arrested on an international warrant . The last word belongs to the magistrates and not to the government”, observed Tajani, in any case the Minister of Justice Nordio, “is following the whole affair with great attention, with the powers he has”.

“I will pray for her and for me,” Abedini told his lawyer Alfredo De Francesco during an interview in Opera prison. For the first time, as far as we know, the two spoke about the journalist detained in Tehran.