An Italian journalist detained in Iran for three weeks, whose fate became intertwined with that of an Iranian engineer wanted by the United States, was freed Wednesday and is heading home, Italian officials said.

Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was on a plane home Wednesday after being freed from an Iranian prison, the result of tireless diplomatic lobbying behind the scenes, the Italian government said.

Sala, a 29-year-old reporter for the Il Foglio daily, was detained in Tehran on Dec. 19, three days after she arrived on a journalist visa. She was accused of violating the laws of the Islamic Republic,