The case of the journalist Cecillia Sala, arrested on 19 December in Tehran, is the subject of an investigation: this was announced today by the spokesperson of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baghaei.
“The Italian journalist was arrested for ‘violation of the laws of the Islamic Republic (of Iran),’ as the foreign media department of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Orientation said in a statement,” Baghaei added. “The announcement on the latest developments and details of the case rests with the spokesperson of the judiciary (Asghar Jahangir),” reads his weekly statement.
Iran expects that the Italian government will not allow bilateral relations to be influenced by the United States, Baghaei said, in reference to Washington’s request to Rome to arrest and extradite Iranian citizen Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi. The man was arrested on December 16 at Malpensa for exporting sensitive US technology to Iran.
The arrest of the journalist has links to the arrest in Italy of the Iranian citizen Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi on an American mandate, on charges of exporting sensitive US technology to Iran and violating US sanctions, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson added Iranian. “The Italian journalist was detained for violating Iranian laws”, while, on the contrary, “the measure taken by the United States against Abedini is a sort of hostage-taking”, added Baghaei.
15/1 in the courtroom on Abedini, now the moves are being studied
While awaiting the transmission of the documents with which the United States requested the capture for the purposes of extradition of Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, the Iranian engineer arrested last December 16 in Malpensa and now in a cell at Opera, the story that is intertwined with the he arrest of journalist Cecilia Sala in Tehran and with the meeting between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Donald Trump in 10 days marks a new stage.
In fact, the hearing has been scheduled for January 15th before a panel of the Court of Appeal of Milan to discuss the request for house arrest made in recent days by the 38-year-old coach’s lawyer, Alfredo De Francesco, to which the Attorney General Francesca Nanni has given a negative opinion (it is not binding) believing there are no guarantees to counter the risk of escape. Also because the request proposes, like the place of house arrest, without an electronic bracelet, an apartment owned by the Iranian Consulate three kilometers from the headquarters and, among other things, the authorization to go out to go shopping not having he has no family member who can take care of his support.
Conditions which, however, for the prosecutor are not sufficient to prevent a repeat of what happened with Artem Uss, the Russian entrepreneur son of an oligarch very close to Putin, who escaped from his home after the positive opinion on extradition overseas.
In this period of time, in view of the hearing in mid-month, the Iranian’s lawyer will be able to collect further exculpatory documents, study the strategy and file defense briefs, and the same goes for the representative of the prosecution in support of his denial . Which, even if it seems impossible, could also change your mind. An idea that has not changed the Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio: after having given the green light to the execution of the precautionary measure requested by the USA, he did not revoke it, a power which is reserved only to him and which he can implement at any time. moment.
On the day of the hearing, Abedini, who does not identify with the charges and declares his innocence, will be able to choose whether to be in the courtroom or assist remotely and whether to be questioned or make statements. After which, within 5 days the judges will decide whether or not to accept the lawyer’s request.
At this point we will have to wait at least a couple of weeks if not more. By the end of the month, the Boston authorities – where a parallel proceeding is taking place against the 38-year-old’s alleged accomplice, Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, also Iranian but a naturalized American – should have sent the documents in support of the investigation in which the two are accused of having violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the embargo regulations and only Abedini of having provided material support to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, considered a terrorist association, causing deaths. Once the papers have been studied, the Milanese court will set the extradition proceedings. He will have to verify, also by asking his American colleagues for additional information, whether or not the conditions exist to ‘hand over’ the engineer to the United States. However, the last word always and only belongs to politics: the Keeper of the Seals, generally with input from the Government, will be able to decide not to extradite Abedini and ask the college to release him.