An Iranian man sought by the US and arrested in Italy will return home on Sunday after a month in detention.
Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi’s arrest was the result of a “misunderstanding” and resolved through negotiations between Iranian and Italian intelligence services, Iran’s judiciary said.
The Swiss-Iranian citizen, 38, was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa Airport on December 16 under a US warrant over allegations he had supplied materials used in a drone attack in Jordan which killed three American soldiers.
He was detained at the request of the US after a federal court charged him with conspiring to procure sensitive US technology for Iran’s military.
Mr Abedini’s release came days after Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was allowed to return to Italy from Tehran after her arrest in mid-December for “violating the law of the Islamic Republic of Iran”. Iran has denied a link between the two cases, but Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni discussed both with US president-elect Donald Trump earlier this month, Italian newspaper Il Giornale reported.
Earlier on Sunday, Italy’s Justice Ministry requested that the detention of Mr Abedini be cancelled, saying it did not plan to extradite him to the US. Justice Minister Carlo Nordio asked a Milan court on Sunday to revoke the arrest. The charges he faces in the US do not exist in the Italian justice system, meaning there are no grounds for extradition, he added.
Iran’s Judiciary said Mr Abedini “will return to the country in a few hours”.
Mr Abedini had been held in a Milan jail since his arrest, with Iran denying the accusations and calling his detention an “illegal act” that risked damaging Rome-Tehran relations.
“The decision taken by Justice Minister Carlo Nordio happily surprised us,” Mr Abedini’s lawyer told Italian news agency Ansa. “My client is now a free person and he will be able to smile and hope once again.
“He always repeated to me that he believed and had confidence in justice.”