British News Agency

Cecilia Sala, a 29-year-old war correspondent and journalist working for the Italian newspaper Il Foglio and podcast company Chora Media, was detained on December 19 in Iran's capital, Tehran, while reporting, and held in solitary confinement for a week.

Sala was in Syria on a regular journalist visa and had published several reports on the changing landscape in Iran following the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. The Italian government stated that it is working to bring her back to Italy.

The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Sala was allowed to make two phone calls to her relatives. Italian Ambassador Paola Amadei visited her in prison on Friday, and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the journalist's "health condition is good."

In an interview with La Repubblica on Sunday, a US State Department spokesperson stated that her detention was a retaliatory measure following the US-ordered arrest of a Swiss-Iranian businessman and suspected arms dealer with alleged ties to the Iranian regime at Milan Airport on December 16.