Her flight back to Italy was already booked and her business trip to Iran had already ended. But the Italian journalist Cecilia Sala did not return home, arrested on December 19 in Tehran and in solitary confinement for over a week in Evin prison , where dissidents and foreigners suspected of having relations with the opposition to the regime are held.
An arrest, that of the reporter, that after ten days still has no official reason. But in these hours a hypothesis is gaining ground, that Sala's incarceration is somehow connected to the arrest 11 days ago in Malpensa of an Iranian, wanted in the US on charges of selling weapons to terrorists . "Since Thursday morning, since we lost track of him, we all united with a single goal: to bring Cecilia home as soon as possible", explained in an interview with Corriere della Sera the journalist Mario Calabresi , director of Chora Media. "This was a trip that Cecilia really cared about. She had been applying for the visa for a long time", continues Calabresi who underlines how the journalist had been as always "scrupulous, serious, studying. Three episodes of the series Stories had already been released, the podcast she hosts for Chora. Then, on Thursday, our colleague Francesca Milano called me and said 'Sala's recording hasn't arrived'". "We are in the absence of a formal accusation and therefore, initially, the hope was that this matter could be resolved quickly, which is why we remained silent for a week," added Calabresi, who is confident in the help that Italy will be able to give the reporter to return home.
Taghi Rahmani, a journalist and activist in exile since 2012 and husband of Nobel Prize winner Narghes Mohammadi , who he has not seen since, also supported the hypothesis of a connection between Sala's arrest and that of the Iranian citizen at the Milan airport. "The modus operandi is that of intelligence and the Pasdaran: a surprise arrest, hidden for several days, the charge that, as far as we know, is still unknown. This story makes one think of blackmail. If the authorities in Evin have sought contact with the Italian embassy, it means they are exploring a path to dialogue." "If we were to talk about espionage, it would be alarming," Rahmani continued. "Espionage in favor of non-enemy countries like Italy carries a sentence of 7 to 10 years, but espionage in favor of Israel calls for the death penalty. If, as in the case of Alessia Piperno, there were no trial, it would be simpler. Of course, in Tehran they have already planned the strategy. For now I fear that she will remain in prison, they will interrogate her trying to make her say things that can be used against her".
