Cecilia Sala, 29, was arrested on 19 December, three days after an Iranian engineer was detained by Italian authorities in Milan on suspicion of supplying drone technology that led to the deaths of US soldiers. Reports said she had been held in solitary confinement in Tehran's notorious Evin prison.

Cecilia Sala, 29, was detained last month while on a reporting trip. She had been held for 20 days and told her family that she was kept in isolation.