Elon Musk was instrumental in securing the release of a young Italian journalist who was jailed in Iran on trumped up charges, it was reported on Thursday.

The involvement of Mr Musk raises questions about his diplomatic reach and exactly what role he will play in the new US administration of Donald Trump, who will be sworn in next week.

The billionaire tech entrepreneur interceded on behalf of Cecilia Sala, 29, who was arrested in December and incarcerated in the notorious Evin prison while on a reporting trip in the Islamic republic.

Her imprisonment, on vague charges of breaching Islamic law, appeared to be a tactic by the Iranian regime to use her as a bargaining chip to win the release from an Italian jail of Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, an Iranian engineer accused of being a key part of Iran’s drone programme and of having a hand in a militia attack that killed three US servicemen at a base in Jordan last year.

There were fears that she might remain in prison, sleeping on the floor with just two blankets and no mattress, for months, until she was suddenly released earlier this month.