IRAN EXECUTES DISSIDENT JOURNALIST RUHOLLAH ZAM

Sat 12 December 2020:

Iranian dissident journalist Ruhollah Zam, who Iran convicted of fomenting violence during the 2017 anti-government protests, was executed on Saturday, Iran’s semi-official Nour news agency reported.

Zam was a journalist who ran the Amadnews feed on popular messaging app Telegram, which had more than one million followers.

Nine month ago, Iranian journalist Ruhollah Zam was reportedly kidnapped in Baghdad. This past week he was sentenced to death in Iran for “corruption on earth”.

I discussed Zam’s case with @rgizbert on @AJListeningPost pic.twitter.com/76NoeI8M2Q

— Johanna Hoes (@JohannaHoes) July 8, 2020

Iran’s Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence of Zam, who was captured in 2019 after years in exile. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed to have arrested Zam in Iraq in a “sophisticated and professional operation,” but Iraqi government sources later challenged this narrative.

In June, a court sentenced Zam to death, saying he had been convicted of “corruption on Earth,” a charge often used in cases involving espionage or attempts to overthrow Iran’s government.

Zam’s website and Telegram feed had spread the timings of the protests and embarrassing information about officials that directly challenged the authority of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Those demonstrations, which began at the end of 2017, represented the biggest challenge to Tehran since the 2009 Green Movement protests and set the stage for similar mass unrest in November of last year.

Another despicable execution in #Iran, punishing Rohollah Zam for exercising his right to freely express himself. Abolish the death penalty, in Iran and around the world. https://t.co/8qRLLInwZc

— Sam Zarifi (@SZarifi) December 12, 2020

I knew #RuhollahZam through Facebook. A lot of journalists and activists knew him or had communicated with him at some point during his years in exile. His execution is as heartbreaking as it is a crime.

— Shahin Milani (@shahinmilani81) December 12, 2020

Zam’s website and a channel he created on the popular messaging app Telegram had spread the timings of the protests and embarrassing information about officials that directly challenged Iran’s government. His Amad News feed had more than a million followers.

Those demonstrations, which began at the end of 2017, represented the biggest challenge to Iran since the 2009 Green Movement protests and set the stage for similar mass unrest in November of last year.

“This individual committed criminal and corrupt acts against the security and livelihoods of the Iranian people through running the antagonist Amad News Telegram channel and espionage communication with elements linked with foreign services that are against the Iranian people’s security,” wrote Mizan, the official news website of the judiciary.

Iran recently attracted international criticism for executing Navid Afkari, a wrestler who was arrested during the 2018 anti-government protests.

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