When an Italian journalist was arrested in Iran in December, her boyfriend back home feared she would remain in prison for years. So, amid talk that Iran and Italy were negotiating a prisoner exchange involving the United States, he said he decided to pass the message on to someone who might be able to help.
His name was Elon Musk.
Not only was Musk close to President-elect Donald J. Trump a month before the journalist was detained, but the tech billionaire held secret talks with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations.
Last week, journalist Cecilia Sala, 29, was released from an Iranian prison, and a few days later, an Iranian engineer held by Italy on an extradition request from the United States was also released. The engineer was accused of providing materials for the drones used in attacks on U.S. military bases by Iranian-backed militias that killed three U.S. service members.
Two Iranian officials familiar with Salah’s conditions, one a senior diplomat at the foreign ministry, said Mr. Musk contacted Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeed Irabani, to help secure Salah’s release. He said he cooperated. exchange. They asked that their names not be published because they were discussing sensitive issues.
Neither Musk nor representatives of Trump’s transition allies responded to repeated requests for comment.
It remains unclear how Musk, who has become increasingly active on the world stage since President Trump’s victory, even if unqualified, came to take on the journalistic cause. is. He is close to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida, where Musk is a regular visitor, and met with the president-elect on January 4.
Meloni said at a press conference last week that Salah’s release was the result of a “complex diplomatic triangulation with Iran and, of course, the United States.” Her office and Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment for this article.
A senior Biden administration official said the U.S. government was not consulted about the negotiations, was not informed of the release in advance, and disapproved of the deal. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the deal was “an Italian decision from soup to nuts.”
Meloni said at a news conference that he did not know what role Musk played in Sara’s release. “If he had a role, I don’t know about it,” she said.
The ambiguity highlights the unusual role Musk has played in supporting far-right parties in Europe and sitting by Trump’s side even as he continues to advance his business interests overseas. are. Italy, for example, is currently exploring a possible deal with Musk’s SpaceX to provide secure communications for government and military personnel through Starlink. And Meloni has been one of Musk’s constant allies in Europe, hosting him at the party’s 2023 convention and attending a gala with him last October.
By the time Meloni arrived at Mar-a-Lago, Sara’s boyfriend, Daniele Rainelli, had already reached out to Musk for help through an intermediary. Mr. Rainelli said in an interview that he thought of Mr. Trump because he had read that there was a “conduit between Mr. Musk and Iranian diplomats, and Mr. Musk also has close contact with Mr. Trump.”
Rainelli, who is also a journalist, said he sent a message on December 29 to a colleague of Musk’s, an Italian computer expert, asking if he could bring Sala’s case to Musk’s attention and ask for his help.
Computer expert Andrea Stroppa said in an interview that Musk granted the request but did not know if he was involved in the incident.
In November, weeks before Salah’s arrest, Musk met with Iran’s ambassador for more than an hour at Iran’s official residence in Manhattan to discuss de-escalating tensions between Tehran and the United States in preparation for forming a new government.
Iranian officials interviewed for this article said Musk contacted the ambassador again shortly after Meloni visited Mar-a-Lago.
After that, the prisoner exchange between Iran and Italy unfolded rapidly. Iran released Sara on January 8, and four days later Italy released Iranian engineer Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi.
Abedini was detained at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice. A federal court in Massachusetts accused Musk of procuring drone technology from Iran that was used in a January 2024 attack on a US military base in Jordan. Two Iranian officials said that when Mr. Musk spoke to the ambassador, he made the following demands: Iran released Salah and reassured him that the United States would not pressure Italy to extradite the Iranian engineer.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations declined to comment on Musk and the ambassador’s recent involvement. The two detainees were released as a result of “bilateral cooperation and coordinated efforts between the political and intelligence sectors of Iran and Italy,” the government said in a statement.
Both sides have been cautious about what happened in public, but for many involved, the swift release of the prisoners after Trump and Meloni’s meeting meant the issue could be discussed and a resolution reached. It suggested that he did.
Former Italian diplomat Ferdinando Nelli Feroci said: “The most likely reconstruction is that she received a signal of understanding from President Trump that it would not cause major problems if the next administration released Abedini.” ” he said.
The Italian government detained Abedini in mid-December as he was passing through Milan’s airport. Three days later, agents from the Revolutionary Guard’s intelligence branch raided Sara’s hotel room in Tehran and threw her into a cell at Evin Prison. She was traveling to Iran on a journalist visa.
A member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and two Iranian officials said the journalist was arrested to pressure Italy to release Abedini. For nearly 50 years, Iran has made the detention of foreign nationals and dual nationals a central part of its foreign policy.
“It doesn’t matter who you are,” Shahin Modares, a Rome-based Iran and international security expert, said in a telephone interview. “You can be a journalist, you can be a diplomat, you can be a tourist,” he said. “The important thing is whether Iran thinks it can use you as leverage.”
Sarah said in an interview that she was kept in a cell without a mattress and slept with one blanket on the floor and another underneath. For weeks, she was denied glasses and never saw a human face during her entire detention. He could also hear the sounds of other inmates crying and vomiting. He was blindfolded and interrogated for hours almost every day.
Her biggest fear was “going crazy.”
Her boyfriend, Rainelli, said Meloni told Sarah’s mother on January 2 that there would be significant developments within the next 48 hours.
Mr. Stroppa, a programmer, dropped a hint on X’s account. On the day the prime minister visited Mar-a-Lago, he posted a photo of Trump, Meloni and Musk wearing ancient Roman costumes. Then, on the day Sara was released, Musk posted an AI-generated photo of him eating spaghetti, along with an emoji of the Italian flag.
Sara said she understands that the Italian government did what was necessary to free her. “And whoever they needed to talk to, they talked,” she said.
Ryan Mac and Matthias Schwartz contributed reporting.
