An Italian journalist, Cecelia Sala, who was in Iran on business, was arrested on December 19 by Tehran police, the Italian Foreign Ministry said today.

The Italian embassy and consulate in Tehran are following the case and Rome’s ambassador to Iran, Paola Amadei, visited her today to see the conditions of her detention, the statement said.

According to La Repubblica’s website, the young journalist had been in Iran for about ten days and was preparing to return to Italy when she was arrested.

She had arrived in Iran on a journalist’s visa and had done a lot of reporting on the changes in that country since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, according to the same source.