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TEHRAN: Iran on Saturday (December 12) executed Ruhollah Zam, a former opposition figure who had lived in exile in France and was involved in anti-government protests, state television said.
The station said “counterrevolutionary” Zam was hanged the morning after Iran’s Supreme Court upheld his death sentence due to “the gravity of the crimes” committed against the Islamic republic.
France and human rights groups have condemned the Supreme Court decision.
The son of a pro-reform Shiite cleric, Zam fled Iran and received asylum in France.
In October 2019, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had caught Zam in a “complex operation using intelligence deception.” He did not say where the operation took place.
In announcing his arrest, the Revolutionary Guard claimed that Zam was “led by the French intelligence service.”
State television said it was “under the protection of the intelligence services of various countries.”
Zam was charged with “corruption on the ground”, one of the most serious crimes under Iranian law, and sentenced to death in June.
The official IRNA news agency said he was also convicted of espionage for France and an anonymous country in the region, cooperating with the “hostile US government”, acting against “the security of the country”, insulting the “sanctity of Islam” and instigating violence. during the 2017 protests.
At least 25 people died during the riots in December 2017 and January 2018, triggered by economic difficulties. The unrest was among the worst Iran had seen in decades, and even more deadly protests against rising fuel prices followed last year.
Zam, who reportedly lived in Paris, ran a channel on the Telegram messaging app called Amadnews that had more than a million followers.
Telegram shut down the channel after Iran demanded that it delete the account for inciting an “armed uprising,” but then reappeared under another name.
