Sala's arrest not reprisal for Abedini's detention - Iran

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 7 - 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. (ANSA).