Rome, April 30: An Iranian journalist detained in Italy last month on suspicion of arms trafficking to the Islamic state has been released from prison and put under house arrest, an Italian legal source said on Thursday.
Relations between Tehran and Rome hit a new low in March after Italian police arrested Hamid Masouminejad and another Iranian citizen who Italy believes are secret agents.
The source said Masouminejad was now under house arrest but was given permission to go to work.
“With the help of Iran’s Foreign Ministry … Masouminejad was released from prison,” Mohammad Sharif-Malekzadeh, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Iranians living abroad told Iran’s official news agency IRNA.
There was no word on the fate of the other Iranian.
Iran had warned Italy of retaliation in kind and had summoned Rome’s ambassador to Tehran over the detention. Rome rejected the arrest was politically motivated.
Italy has traditionally been one of Iran’s main trading partners in Europe but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s close ties with Israel and diplomatic pressure over the nuclear dispute have led to a sharp drop in Italian investments.
Berlusconi has said his government will block new investment in Iran’s oil and gas sector where Italy’s ENI is active. Iranian media later condemned Berlusconi as “a slave of Israel”.
—-Agencies