Cecilia Sala, an Italian journalist
arrested on charges of breaking Islamic law in Iran, should be
treated with dignity and freed immediately, Palazzo Chigi said
after a summit on her case chaired by Premier Giorgia Meloni
Thursday, after which Sala's mother hailed the PM's efforts to
free her daughter and make sure she was being properly treated.
"The Government confirms its commitment to the Iranian
authorities for the immediate release of Cecilia Sala, and,
pending this, for treatment that respects human dignity", said
Chigi in a statement.
Chigi added that a Swiss-Iranian businessman arrested on a US
terror charge at Milan airport three days before Sala was being
treated well, respecting international laws and conventions.
"With regard to Mohammad Abedini, who is currently in pre-trial
detention at the request of the United States authorities, the
Government reiterates that all detainees are guaranteed equal
treatment in compliance with Italian law and international
conventions," said the Chigi statement.
It added that Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Mantovano, who holds a
national security brief, was ready to report to the
parliamentary intelligence service oversight body COPASIR on the
case on Friday.
"Undersecretary Mantovano, in his capacity as delegated
Authority, meeting the opposition's requests, has given
immediate availability to the President of the Parliamentary
Committee for the Security of the Republic, Lorenzo Guerini, to
report to Copasir as early as tomorrow morning, and then through
him to Parliament", said Chigi.
The potential involvement of the opposition was among the
hypotheses discussed at the meeting
Rome-born Sala, 29, an Il Foglio freelance correspondent and
Chora News podcaster, is being held as a possible pawn for a
potential prisoner exchange with Abedini, arrested in Milan on
US charges of supplying drone parts used to kill three
servicemen in Jordan a year ago.
She has no mattress but just two blankets, one to put on the
floor to sleep on and one to protect herself from the biting
cold of Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, Italian news outlets
reported.
She was arrested on generic charges of breaking Islamic laws in
the Iranian capital on December 16, three days after Mohammad
Abedini, was picked up at Milan's Malpensa Aiport.
Sala has told her family about her conditions in Evin, the
Italian dailies said.
She is in solitary confinement, she doesn't even see the guards:
her food comes to her through a crack in the door. It's not true
that she received a package with food, hygiene products and
books, since she can't read because her glasses were
confiscated.
A neon light is on in her cell all day and all night.
Her parents, who were able to hear their daughter after days of
solitary confinement, say that their daughter is very tired and
that she often repeated during the phone call: "We have to
hurry".
After the summit Meloni received Sala's mother Elisabetta
Vernoni.
Vernoni later told reporters:
"The first concern now is absolutely the prison living
conditions of my daughter. There was talk of a single cell.
Single cells do not exist. There are common detention cells and
then there are punishment cells. She is obviously one of these.
I don't know what they are like, but if someone sleeps on the
floor it makes me think that in 2024 it is called that. So the
first thing is more dignified prison living conditions and then
important and strong decisions of our country to think about the
return to Italy, about which I do not cry, I do not whine and I
do not ask for times, because they are very particular
realities".
"The prime minister has made a qualitative leap from the
understandable reassurances I always receive. She was more
precise and more punctual and this is what I wanted and this is
what I got."
"When asked if she was satisfied with the meeting, she replied:
"Obviously yes, in the sense that at this moment, it is obvious
that my moods... Yesterday was a moment of strong mood swings,
but absolutely yes."
"She's trying to be a soldier, Cecilia, I'm trying to be one.
However, the prison conditions for a 29-year-old girl who has
done nothing must be those that cannot mark her for life. Then,
if we think in days or other, I respect the times they tell me,
but the conditions must be those that do not mark a girl who is
only an Italian excellence, not just wine and cotechino".
Did they give you a time frame, Vernoni was asked. "Something -
she replied -, but very generic things, on which I am now
waiting for more precise news".
Earlier, Italy again asked for Sala's immediate release during a
meeting at the foreign ministry in Rome summoned by Secretary
General Riccardo Guariglia with the Iranian envoy.
Guariglia reiterated a request to ensure dignified conditions of
detention, in the respect of human rights, and to guarantee full
consular assistance to the Italian reporter, allowing Italy's
Embassy in Tehran to visit her and give her care packages which
she has not been allowed to receive.
Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Reza Sabouri said during the talks
that Sala has been given every facility in Evin and Italy should
now in response release Abedini.
A document delivered by US judicial officials to an appeals
court in Milan says Abedini is a dangerous individual and must
remain in prison.
Milan's prosecutor general issued a negative opinion on
releasing Abedini to house arrest.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
