Iranian suspect detained in Italy in US drone case praying for Italian reporter detained in Tehran
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The fate of an Italian journalist detained in Tehran and an Iranian engineer imprisoned in Italy on a U.S. warrant grew even more intertwined Friday as the Iranian awaits possible extradition to the United States to face charges he provided drone technology to Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard corps.
A Milan court scheduled a hearing for Jan. 15 to decide whether to keep Mohammad Abedini at Milan’s Opera prison or grant him house arrest pending the start of the lengthy extradition process. The U.S. government hasn't commented publicly on Abedini's petition, but in the past it has complained to Italy's justice ministry about a half-dozen cases of suspects wanted by the U.S. who escaped from the Italian justice system before they could be extradited.
On Friday, lawyer Alfredo De Francesco visited Abedini in prison and said his client had asked him about Cecilia Sala, an Italian reporter detained in Tehran just days after Abedini was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport on a U.S. warrant. Italian commentators have speculated that Iran is holding Sala as a bargaining chip to ensure Abedini’s release, and both governments have linked their fates to one another in public statements.
“He asked me to write the name of Cecilia Sala on a piece of paper we had with pen, so that he could correctly pronounce her name,” De Francesco told reporters outside the prison. “And he told me that he would pray a lot for her and himself in these days.”.
