The Ministry of Justice also requests to annul the extradition order to the United States as there is no coincidence of crimes.
Jan. 12 () –
The Italian Ministry of Justice has asked a court to revoke the arrest warrant against the Swiss-Iranian citizen Mohamed Abedini Najafabadi, linked to the release this week of the Italian journalist Cecilia Sala detained in Tehran in mid-December, for alleged violations of local laws.
On January 2, the Iranian ambassador to Italy, Mohammad Reza Sabouri, officially linked Sala’s case to that of Abedini, days after Italian media, according to sources close to the case, began to talk about a possible connection between the two arrests. .
Abedini was arrested in Milan last month under a US arrest warrant for participating in a procedure to supply parts for drones that Washington says were used in a 2024 attack that killed three US service members in Jordan.
In a statement collected by SkyTG, the Italian Ministry of Justice not only announces that it will ask an appeals court in Milan to revoke the arrest order, but it will also suspend its extradition process to the United States as there is no correspondence of punishable crimes.
“In accordance with Article 2 of the Extradition Treaty between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Italian Republic,” the note reads, “only crimes punishable under the laws of both contracting parties may give rise to extradition.” ; condition that, in the current state of things, cannot be considered to exist.”
“The only thing proven with certainty is the carrying out of production and trade activities with your country of technological instruments that have potential, but not exclusive, military applications,” the note concludes.
Italian official sources on condition of anonymity have explained to the Bloomberg agency that they do not fear reprisals or episodes of tension with the United States given that the president of the United States, Joe Biden, is about to leave office on January 20.
Abedini has been held in the Opera prison in Milan since his arrest at Malpensa airport on December 16. Sala was arrested three days later on December 19 in the Iranian capital, Tehran, when she was “carrying out journalistic work,” as the Italian Government itself explained.
The Iranian Ministry of Culture ended up confirming the arrest to explain that Sala was accused of “violating the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran”, without clarifying the exact crimes with which she was charged.
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