Cecilia Sala, Abedini from prison: 'I am an academic not a terrorist'. Lawyer asks for house arrest

The judges' decision on house arrest for Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, the Iranian citizen detained in Milan's Opera prison for whom the US is requesting extradition, is the new delicate step in the diplomatic affair that intersects the fate of Cecilia Sala, the Italian journalist arrested in Tehran last December nineteen. The Iranian engineer's lawyer has filed a request for the measure against his client to be relaxed and now the Milan Court of Appeal will have forty-eight hours to schedule a hearing and discuss the request. It is a delicate decision that the judges are called upon to make and one that could inevitably carry with it the weight of what happened with the case of Artem Uss, the Russian businessman, son of an oligarch very close to Putin, on whom an extradition request made by the United States was pending, placed under house arrest in Milan and then escaped. The Americans were 'appalled' by the decision taken by the judges on the Russian businessman's house arrest, and the Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio himself took disciplinary action against the judges, who were accused of 'serious and inexcusable negligence' with regard to that measure. The Csm then acquitted the three judges, accepting the request of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Supreme Court.

An affair that could weigh on Abedini's fate also in view of the fact that, if the Russian oligarch's son was assessed by the US as 'code orange' in relation to his dangerousness, the Iranian is instead considered a 'code red'. The thirty-eight year old Iranian citizen, arrested last December 16th in the Milan airport, is in fact accused by the United States of conspiracy and material support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. It is no coincidence that the Iranian is currently detained in the Opera prison under high security regime. But for his lawyer, Alfredo De Francesco, there is no danger of escape or reiteration of the crime, which is why in his recently filed petition he indicates a flat in Milan as the place to which he will be transferred for house arrest.

On the other hand, the other Iranian arrested on the same charges, Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, captured in Massachusetts, will return to court in Boston on Thursday after pleading not guilty and could therefore be released. Meanwhile, the authorities in Washington have already handed over the documentation with Abedini's extradition request to the Farnesina, which will be sent to the Ministry of Justice. In the midst of negotiations, the government may take its time as Guardasigilli Nordio will have thirty days before forwarding the documents to the Court of Appeal. In that time, the ministry can make formal evaluations, requesting any additions or clarifications from the US justice. The transfer of the 38-year-old Iranian to Tehran - a condition explicitly requested by the ayatollahs' regime for Cecilia Sala's return to Italy - is only one of the options in the field. And it is the one on which the United States, the other country involved in the negotiations, would be least willing. The other hypothesis is a triangular exchange as has already happened in several other cases: the release of Iranian prisoners in other countries, who could return to Teheran only after the release of the Roman reporter. An operation that could only succeed, however, thanks to the intervention of the United States, which would have the power to solicit other states in turn to find a solution.

"I am an academic, a scholar: I am certainly not a terrorist. I do not understand this arrest, I cannot understand it'. This is what Abedini basically reiterated during a meeting on the morning of 31 December in the Opera prison with his lawyer Alfredo de Francesco in the presence also of Iran's consul. The Iranian engineer reiterated his extraneousness to the charges, describing himself as 'astonished'. According to his defence lawyer, during the interview, which lasted several hours, the Cecilia Sala case was not mentioned, but Abedini learned about it from the TV news in prison.

Meanwhile, Tuesday 31 December marked twelve days since the journalist was arrested in Iran, where she is being held in solitary confinement in Evin prison. Only yesterday the country confirmed the detention, state media reported. The charge is that of 'violating the laws of the Islamic Republic'. But the United States has explicitly accused Tehran of using Sala as 'political leverage' for blackmail, linking his arrest to that of Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, who was arrested in Italy on 16 December at the request of the US on suspicion of supplying drones to terrorist groups targeting Western citizens. Washington will not withdraw the extradition request, but US executive officials have hinted that Italy may explore other avenues.