Iranian press review: Prisoner swap with Italy sparks uproar

Anger over Iran’s 'hostage diplomacy'
The release of a 38-year-old Iranian-Swiss businessman detained in Italy at the request of the United States has sparked widespread backlash amongst Iranian dissidents.
Mohammad Abedini's release came four days after Iranian authorities freed an Italian journalist, Cecilia Sala, who had been travelling to Iran on a journalist visa. Sala’s arrest in Iran on 19 December occurred three days after Abedini’s detention in Italy, fuelling speculation that she was held to be exchanged for Abedini.
Abedini was accused by the US government of bypassing sanctions and supplying parts used in military drones to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Media outlets close to the Iranian government praised Abedini’s release as the result of “urgent diplomacy”.
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According to local media, the Iranian judiciary also stated: “Abedini’s arrest was a misunderstanding that was resolved through follow-up by the Islamic Republic’s foreign ministry and negotiations between the Iranian and Italian intelligence services.”
Many Iranian citizens and opponents of the establishment criticised the event on social media, calling it another prisoner exchange between Iran and western countries and referring to Sala’s detention as a case of hostage-taking.
An Iranian user on X, formerly Twitter, wrote: “So we conclude that the hostage policy still works, and Europeans will continue to pay ransom to the bully.”
Another user referred to the event as Iran’s “hostage policy”, while Iran Wire, an anti-establishment outlet, covered the news under the headline, “Another successful end to the Islamic Republic’s hostage-taking”.
Jet fuel theft exposes Iran’s smuggling mafia
The uncovering of a 2km pipeline used to steal jet fuel has brought the issue of organised smuggling and its impact on Iran's struggling economy into focus.
On Sunday, local media reported that a pipeline, capable of syphoning 60,000 litres of jet fuel per day, was found near Bandar Abbas Airport in southern Iran.
While the perpetrators have not yet been arrested and further details remain undisclosed, Iranian judicial authorities said those responsible possessed the precise information and technical expertise required to connect their pipeline to the supply system.
This incident has reignited concerns that influential figures have organised and facilitated fuel smuggling in Iran.
Although Iran is a leading oil producer in the Middle East, it has faced challenges in meeting its domestic fuel needs in recent years, forcing it to rely on imports.
Government officials have attributed Iran's fuel imbalance to consumption levels exceeding global standards.
However, recent local media reports suggested that nearly 30 million litres of gasoline and diesel are being smuggled daily from Iran to neighbouring countries.
Two political prisoners sentenced to death
Despite international opposition and protests by human rights groups, Iran continues to issue death sentences to political activists and government opponents, the latest of which were announced last week.

On Tuesday, Farsi sources reported that the death sentence of Behrouz Ehsani Eslamloo, 69, was upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court.
The political prisoner was arrested during the 2022 nationwide protests known as the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement. He had previously been arrested and sentenced to flogging during 2019 anti-government protests.
Judge Iman Afshari, at Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, sentenced Eslamloo to death on charges of “rebellion, war, corruption on earth, and colluding to act against the security of the country”.
Reports also indicate that Afshari sentenced another political prisoner, Mehdi Hassani, to death last week.
On 7 January, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, said that in 2024 at least 901 people were hanged in Iran, constituting the highest number of executions since 2015, when 972 people were killed.
Political prisoners appeal to the UN over prison conditions
Six prisoners in Vakil Abad Prison, Mashhad, have written a letter reporting violence and beatings of inmates, poor mental and physical conditions, unfair sentences and neglect of medical needs in the prison.
These prisoners, from the country's Sunni Muslim minority, have called for action from the United Nations and human rights organisations.
According to HRANA, Iran’s Human Rights Activists News Agency, Issa Eidmohammadi, Farhad Shakeri, Habib Pirmohammadi, Abdulrahman Gargij, Abdolbaset Orsan, and Abdolhakim Azim Gargij published the letter, titled “What is happening in the dictator’s prisons?”, to shed light on prison conditions.
In their letter, the prisoners stressed: “We, political and religious prisoners, demand that the United Nations and human rights communities expose the terrible conditions in the dictatorial regime’s prisons and hold these dictators accountable.”
Eidmohammadi, Shakeri, Azim Gorgij, and Abdulrahman Gorgij are political prisoners who have been sentenced to death. Orsan and Pirmohammadi are serving 15-year sentences in Mashhad prison for their political activities.
* Iranian press review is a digest of news reports not independently verified as accurate by Middle East Eye.
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