From Homeland’s Evin prison, Sala was able to keep in touch with her parents, but said she was kept in isolation, had to sleep on the floor with just two blankets, and had lights on in her cell constantly, according to accounts in Italian media.
In a podcast episode published Wednesday by Chora Media — a news outlet Sala works for — her mother, Elisabetta Vernoni, said she heard first from Meloni and then directly from her daughter that she was coming home. “She told me she was fine, I love you, see you soon,” Vernoni recounted. “Her voice was her usual — it was already different from the one I’d heard over the past few days.”
Claudio Cerasa, editor in chief of Il Foglio, said he cried when he met Sala at the airport. “She landed, and first hugged her fiancé, then her family and all of the other people on the inside,” he said. “I just told her ‘Welcome back,’ and we hugged it out.”
Also at the airport was Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, a friend of Sala’s father.
“I have an emotional bond with the father and I felt the double responsibility. I believe that everyone’s general commitment has led to this result,” he told Italy’s TG2 network.