Italian journalist Cecilia Sala has arrived back in the country’s capital after being freed from an Iranian prison where she had spent weeks in detention.

The reporter for the Il Foglio daily was detained in Tehran on December 19, three days after she arrived on a journalist visa.

Iran likely held Cecilia Sala as a bargaining chip after an Iranian businesses was arrested in Italy on a U.S. warrant.

An Italian journalist detained in Iran for three weeks has been freed and has returned home, after her fate had become intertwined with that of an Iranian engineer arrested in Italy and wanted by the United States.

An Italian journalist detained in Iran for three weeks was freed Wednesday and returned home, after her fate had become intertwined with that of an Iranian engineer arrested in Italy and wanted by the United States.

Cecilia Sala, an Italian journalist who had been arrested in Tehran and jailed for three weeks, was freed and sent back to Italy, according to a statement by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's office.

Cecilia Sala, 29, was detained last month while on a reporting trip. She had been held for 20 days and told her family that she was kept in isolation.

A plane carrying the 29-year-old landed at Rome’s Ciampino airport on Wednesday. Her overjoyed parents and partner were on hand to welcome her back, as were the prime minister, the foreign minister, and the mayor of Rome.

After more than three weeks of detention, Cecilia Sala has been released from Tehran's Evin Prison and was met at the airport in Rome by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.