Cecilia Sala, Iran’s message to Italy: “Illegal Abedini arrest”

L’arrest of Mohammad Abedinithe 38-year-old Iranian engineer captured at Malpensa airport last December 16 by Digos on US orders, “it is an illegal act, which damages relations” between Rome and Tehran. The warning on the affair closely linked to that of the journalist Cecilia Sala, comes from Iran the day after the Iranian ambassador in Rome was summoned to the Farnesina and on the day in which the Italian ambassador to Tehran, Paola Amadei, was summoned by the director general for Europe of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Majid Nili Ahmadabadi, to discuss the reporter’s case.

Iran asked Italy “to reject the US hostage-taking policy, which is contrary to international lawin particular human rights, to prepare the basis for Abedini’s release as soon as possible and to prevent the United States from damaging bilateral Tehran-Rome relations”, as we read on the Irna news agency, regarding the content of the summoning of the Italian ambassador on the “continued detention” in Italy of Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi. The hearing to decide on house arrest will be held on January 15th.

Meanwhile, a new statement from the arrested engineer arrives from the Opera prison in Milan. “I will pray for Cecilia Sala and for myself”, the words used by Abedini with his lawyer, Alfredo De Francesco, who he met this morning for an interview in the penitentiary. It is the first time since the arrest of the Iranian citizen that the two have spoken about Cecilia Sala. According to AdnKronos, Abedini asked the lawyer to write the journalist’s name and surname on a piece of paper, saying that he would pray for her and for himself.

Abedini then said he was “concerned about the situation and for his family” and “in disbelief about the accusations made”, the lawyer reports to AdnKronos. “I gave him some more weapons to understand the matter from a legal point of view but he remains incredulous”, says the lawyer.

The two met the day after the negative opinion on the request for house arrest for the Iranian engineer, expressed by the Milan prosecutor’s office. “We talked about the situation and what happened – explains the lawyer -. I couldn’t tell him the date of the hearing because it was made known after the interview”.

De Francesco, immediately after the opinion of the Milanese prosecutor’s office, filed further documentation to ensure that his client does not leave Italy. Already in the request presented in recent days to request house arrest for his client, the lawyer had indicated an apartment in Milan available to the Iranian consulate in which to comply with the restrictive measure.