Distinguished Italian journalist and podcaster Cecilia Sala has been free of Tehran’s Evin jail for political prisoners the place she had been detained since Dec. 19.

A spokesman for Italian Premiere Giorgia Meloni’s workplace on Wed. mentioned Sala – who was arrested whereas reporting within the Iranian capital – was flying residence on an airplane following “intensive work on diplomatic and intelligence channels.”

Sala, who’s 29, works for Rome-based newspaper Il Foglio and Italian podcast firm Chora Media.

The younger however already outstanding Italian journalist had been conducting a number of interviews in Tehran after arriving there on Dec. 12 with a legitimate journalist visa. Sala was speculated to board her flight again to Italy on Dec. 20, however was as an alternative arrested a day earlier than her deliberate return.

Sala was freed following an unplanned assembly final weekend between Meloni and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago property after it emerged that Iran was believed to have imprisoned Sala as a bargaining chip in hopes of pressuring Italy to launch of Mohammad Abedini, an Iranian businessman who was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport on Dec. 16, on a U.S. warrant, accused of offering drone expertise to Iran utilized in a latest assault on a U.S. outpost in Jordan. Whereas it’s not recognized

Abedini stays behind bars in Italy.

Italian media instantly cheered Sala’s return to Italy as Meloni in a press release on X thanked “all those that helped make Cecilia’s return doable, permitting her to reembrace her household and colleagues.”