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Beirut Another dissident executed in Iran. The repression of the ayatollahs does not cease and this time it was Ruhollah Zam who was hanged at dawn yesterday, just three days after the final ruling of the Supreme Court. Zam ran Amad News, a popular anti-government website, and was accused of fomenting protests in the country in 2017 and 2018. The journalist was a former member of the opposition living in exile in France. His network had more than a million followers on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, where he shared videos of protests and critical information about Iranian officials. The site was closed by the Iranian government and later reopened under a different name. It was annoying. Zam was lured to Iraq from his exile in France to meet Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in hopes of gaining his support. Instead, he ended up in the trap.
Zam had been granted political asylum in France after being imprisoned in Iran following the controversial 2009 presidential elections. He was the son of prominent reformist cleric Mohammad Ali Zam, but was still convicted of “corruption on the ground.” of the most serious crimes in the Islamic Republic. Once in Iran, Zam was tried and forced to confess on television. Some television reports described his network of contacts and how he was a victim of the intelligence operation led by Pasdaran. One of those documentaries was broadcast the night before his execution. However, Amnesty International claimed that he had been the victim of “an unfair trial based on forced confessions”. Instead, the Pasdaran specified that it was “under the direction” and protection of the intelligence services of France, Israel and the United States.
Zam’s execution comes a few weeks after that of wrestler Navid Afkari. And yesterday came another sentence from an Iranian court. Sahar Tabar, 19, will have to serve ten years in prison for posting photos that made her look like Angelina Jolie, but in the guise of a zombie. Tabar’s real name is Fatemeh Khishvand, and she was arrested in October 2019 along with three other influential people. Masih Alinejad, a prominent Iranian journalist and opposition activist, confirmed that the young woman was accused of “promoting public corruption.” “In jail for using makeup and Photoshop to become a zombie Angelina Jolie. His mother cries every day for release. Dear Angelina Jolie! We need your voice here. Help us, ”Alinejad tweeted. Last October, Iranian state television broadcast an interview with Khishvand in which he said he regretted his actions.
But government control doesn’t stop there. Also on Friday, security forces arrested two Iranian Arab activists, Fatima Tamimi and Maryam Ameri. The arrest took place in his hometown of Mahshahr, in the poor but oil-rich province of Khuzestan. Tamimi, 39, a mother of two, is also a filmmaker who has produced several short documentaries on poverty, unemployment and the social problems of Arabs in Iran. Tamimi and Ameri also carried out a project on the oral tradition of their ethnic group: they recorded stories, lullabies and traditional Arab songs from different villages in the Khuzestan province. Iranian authorities often arrest Arab civil and cultural activists accused of separatism. The Arabs in Iran, known as Ahwazi Arabs, are in fact an ethnic minority residing in Khuzestan. Amnesty International said that Iran executed at least 251 people last year, the second highest number in the world after China.
