Iran has executed journalist Ruhollah Zam (47) on Saturday, according to state television. The news agency did not give any further details on this matter.
Earlier, in June, a revolutionary court had convicted Zam for attempting to overthrow the Iranian government and sentenced him to death. On December 8, Iran’s Supreme Court upheld Zam’s death sentence. Human rights groups and France condemned the SC’s decision to hang Zam.
Zam (47), the son of a reformist Shia cleric, was a dissident journalist and is said to have encouraged the 2017 anti-government protest. He used Telegram messaging service to create his website, AmadNews, a channel.
Reportedly, Zam used this platform to share information about officials and is said to have called for the economic protests. He also shared protest timings. He also shared videos that were called for directly challenging Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. When the nationwide economic protests took place, nearly 5,000 were captured, and 25 were killed.
The Iranian government made several complaints against his channel, and in 2018, Telegram shut it down, alleging that his channel was inciting violence, which he continued to deny. At the same time, he fled Iran after being falsely accused of working with foreign-based intelligence services. He was granted asylum in France. However, a year later, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps trapped him in “a complex operation.” France had no other option but to return him to Iran.
