Italian journalist Cecilia Sala detained by police while reporting in Iran

ROME (AP) — An Italian journalist who was reporting in Tehran has been detained by the Iranian police, Italy’s foreign ministry said in a statement Friday.

Cecilia Sala was reporting in the Iranian capital when she was detained on Dec. 19, the ministry said, adding that it was working with Iranian authorities “to clarify the legal situation of Sala and to verify the conditions of her detention.”

Sala is a reporter for Italian daily Il Foglio, which said she is being held in Tehran’s Evin prison. Il Foglio said Sala was in Iran with a regular visa “to report on a country she knows and loves.”

The newspaper’s editor, Claudio Cerasa, wrote on Friday that “journalism is not a crime,” asking to “bring Cecilia Sala home.”

Sala had been allowed to make two phone calls to her relatives, the foreign ministry said. Italian Ambassador Paola Amadei visited Sala in prison Friday, and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the journalist was “in good health condition.”

Iran has not acknowledged detaining Sala. However, it can take weeks before authorities announce such arrests.

Since the 1979 U.S. Embassy crisis, which saw dozens of hostages released after 444 days in captivity, Iran has used prisoners with Western ties as bargaining chips in negotiations with the world.

In September 2023, five Americans detained for years in Iran were freed in exchange for five Iranians in U.S. custody and for $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets to be released by South Korea.

Western journalists have been held in the past as well. Roxana Saberi, an American journalist, was detained by Iran in 2009 for some 100 days before being released.

Also detained by Iran was Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, who was held for over 540 days before being released in 2016 in a prisoner swap between Iran and the U.S.

Both cases involved Iran making false espionage accusations in closed-door hearings.

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Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai contributed to this report