Tehran, Iran – Iran’s Foreign Ministry and judiciary have confirmed that Iranian national Mohammad Abedini, who was arrested in Italy at the behest of the United States, has been released.
Abedini was returned to Tehran after being arrested as part of a “misunderstanding”, Mizan, the official news outlet of the judiciary, said on Sunday.
The report, also aired by state television, said his release was secured after talks between the Iranian intelligence ministry and the Italian intelligence service.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei in a short statement welcomed the release of the Iranian national, who is accused by Washington of involvement with a January 2024 drone attack on a US outpost in Jordan that killed three American soldiers. He stressed the ministry would defend the rights of Iranian nationals abroad.
Abedini was arrested on a US warrant on December 16, having been accused along with another Iranian of supplying drone technology to Iran that was used on the US military base.
He was due to appear at a Milan court on Wednesday in connection with his bid for house arrest pending an extradition process to the US. But Italy’s Justice Ministry asked an appeals court to revoke his arrest, arguing it “did not correspond to any conduct recognised by Italian law as a crime”.
Three days after Abedini’s arrest, Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was detained in Tehran while travelling on a regular journalist visa and accused of “violating the laws of the Islamic Republic”.
The writer and podcaster was released last week from solitary confinement in the Iranian capital’s Evin prison and returned home, where she was greeted by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.
Meloni had personally made a surprise visit to the Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida in the US several days earlier to meet with US President-elect Donald Trump, who called her a “fantastic woman”.
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