San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
IRAN EXECUTES EXILED JOURNALIST WHO ENCOURAGED NATIONAL PROTESTS IN 2017
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 successfully 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, likely will further chill an already-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 President Donald Trump’s administration.
The execution drew immediate international condemnation.
“This is 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.
The German Foreign Ministry expressed shock about the circumstances of Zam’s conviction and what it described as his “abduction from abroad.”
Zam’s website Amadnews and a channel he created on the popular messaging app Telegram had spread the timings of the 2017 protests and embarrassing information about officials that directly challenged Iran’s Shiite theocracy.
The initial spark for the 2017 protests was a sudden jump in food prices. Many believe that hard-line opponents of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani instigated the first demonstrations in northeastern Iran, trying to direct public anger at the president. But as protests spread from town to town, the backlash turned against the entire ruling class.
Soon, cries directly challenging Rouhani and even Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could be heard in online videos shared by Zam.