Iran executes journalist who inspired 2017 protests

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran on Saturday executed an exiled journalist over his online work that helped inspire nationwide economic protests in 2017, a little more than a year after authorities tricked him into traveling to Iraq, where he was abducted.

Ruhollah Zam, 47, was one of several opposition figures seized by Iranian intelligence operatives abroad in recent months as Tehran struggles under the weight of U.S. sanctions.

Kidnapping and executing Zam, who lived in Paris under what Iran described as French government protection, may further chill a scattered Iranian opposition across the West. It also comes as Iran tries to pressure France and other European nations over the collapsed atomic accord in the waning days of the Trump administration.

The execution drew international condemnation.

“This is a barbarous and unacceptable act,” the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement, which also condemned the execution as a “grave blow” to freedom of expression and media freedom in Iran.

Diana Eltahawy of Amnesty International said Zam’s “execution is a deadly blow to freedom of expression in Iran and shows the extent of the Iranian authorities’ brutal tactics to instill fear and deter dissent.”

Iranian state television referred to Zam as “the leader of the riots” in announcing his execution by hanging Saturday. 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 Amad-News and a channel he created on the messaging app Telegram had spread the timings of the 2017 protests and embarrassing information about officials that challenged the Shiite theocracy.

The initial spark for the 2017 protests was a sudden jump in food prices. But as protests spread from town to town, the backlash turned against the entire ruling class. Soon, cries challenging Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could be heard in online videos shared by Zam.

Telegram shut down over Iranian government complaints it spread information about how to make gasoline bombs. Zam denied inciting violence on Telegram.

Zam had fled Iran after the 2009 Green Movement protests, heading first to Malaysia and then to France. While Iranian authorities have never described how Iran’s Revolutionary Guard detained him, Amnesty said he was seized on a trip to Iraq.

Reporters Without Borders, a group that campaigns for media freedoms, said Zam’s hanging was a “new crime of Iranian justice.”