Najafabadi was arrested on US charges of exporting drone parts used to kill three US servicemen in Jordan a year ago.
“The Italian journalist was detained for violating Iranian laws, while the measure taken by the United States against Abedini is a sort of hostage-taking,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei.
The spokesman added that Sala’s arrest was the subject of an Iranian investigation.
“The Italian journalist was arrested for ‘violating the laws of the Islamic Republic [of Iran],” Baghaei continued.
“The announcement of the latest developments and details of the case is up to the spokesman for the judiciary [Asghar Jahangir].”
Sala, a 29-year-old Il Foglio freelance reporter and Chora News podcaster, is being held in isolation in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.
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.
On January 15, there will be a hearing at the Court of Appeal of Milan on a request for house arrest for the Iranian engineer.
The Financial Times said Monday that Meloni’s lightning visit to Trump comes at a time when the prime minister faces “her toughest diplomatic challenge since taking office” marked by “internal political protests over the arrest in Iran of the Italian journalist”.
Sala’s parents have requested media silence over the affair.
Elisabetta Vernoni and Renato Sala said, “The situation of our daughter, Cecilia Sala, confined in a prison in Tehran for the past 16 days, is complicated and very concerning.
“In order to try and bring her back home, our government has mobilised and now, in addition to the Italian authorities’ efforts, confidentiality and discretion are necessary.”
Meanwhile, well-informed sources said that talks are ongoing between the Italian government and US authorities on the case.
Rome has urged Tehran to make sure Sala is being held in dignified conditions and that she will be released as soon as possible.
In her last call to her family, Sala said her detention conditions in solitary confinement in Evin had not improved and that 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.
She also said she had no mask to sleep as the light is on in her cell all day and all night.
Meanwhile, Abedini, who is detained at Milan’s Opera prison, has told his attorney Alfredo De Francesco on that he will pray for Sala and for himself.
ANSA
