'Free Cecilia Sala' street art appears in Paris

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 31 - A piece of street art has appeared in Paris showing Italia journalist Cecilia Sala in handcuffs in Iran with a gag over her mouth.
    The work created with artificial intelligence by Italian street artist Ozmo was left on a wall in the center of Paris Monday night to draw attention to the plight of the 29-year-old Rome born Il Foglio reporter and Chora New podcaster detained since December 19 in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison.
    "I thought of this intervention to raise awareness among the French and international public about the human rights violations to which Cecilia is subjected," the artist explained to ANSA.
    "My work denounces a reality of imprisonment, with the image of a person in handcuffs, without a voice, as a symbol of the condition of Cecilia and of many others who oppose authoritarian regimes. Not a consolatory image, but a cry of denunciation." The French text accompanying the poster posted in front of the Teatro La Colline, a short distance from the Père-Lachaise cemetery, explains that the intent "is to bring to light a serious and often ignored condition.
    "The figure of Cecilia Sala, depicted with her hands handcuffed and a plaster over her mouth, is not intended to represent a victim, but rather an awareness.
    "This intervention is intended to be a request for urgent action for her release and for the respect of human rights, not only in Iran, but globally".
    "Ozmo, the name with which the artist Gionata Gesi signs himself, has long lived and worked in Paris.
    In the French capital as well as in Italy and abroad he has been the protagonist of public works of art, exhibitions in museums and private galleries and street art incursions focused on dialogue and inclusion and on political and ecological issues related to current events. (ANSA).