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Sala is a reporter for , which said she is being held in Tehran’s Evin prison. Il Foglio said Sala was in Iran with a regular visa “to report on a country she knows and loves.�

The newspaper’s editor, Claudio Cerasa, wrote on Friday that “journalism is not a crime,� asking to “bring Cecilia Sala home.�

Sala had been allowed to make two phone calls to her relatives, the foreign ministry said. Italian Ambassador Paola Amadei visited Sala in prison Friday, and said the journalist was “in good health condition."

Iran has not acknowledged detaining Sala. However, it can take weeks before authorities announce such arrests.

Since the 1979 U.S. Embassy crisis, which saw dozens of hostages released after 444 days in captivity, Iran has used prisoners with Western ties as bargaining chips in negotiations with the world.

In September 2023, five Americans detained for years in Iran were freed in exchange for five Iranians in U.S. custody and for $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets to be released by South Korea.

Western journalists have been held in the past as well. Roxana Saberi, an American journalist, was detained by Iran in 2009 for some 100 days before being released.

Also detained by Iran was , who was held for over 540 days before being released in 2016 in a prisoner swap between Iran and the U.S.

Both cases involved Iran making false espionage accusations in closed-door hearings.

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Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai contributed to this report