Iran executes journalist accused of fanning unrest and for inspiring nationwide protests in 2017, after they tricked him into traveling to Iraq and kidnapped him.
Ruhollah Zam was hanged on Saturday after the supreme court upheld a death sentence against him, state television reported.
Zam, who had been living in exile in France, was reportedly detained after travelling to Iraq last year.
He ran Amad News, a popular anti-government website Iran accused of inciting the 2017-18 protests.
Iran has executed dissident journalist Ruhollah Zam, a former exile in France whose online work helped inspire nationwide economic protests in 2017.
Zam’s website AmadNews 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 Shiite theocracy.
The semi-official ISNA news agency reported on December 12 that Tehran’s Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office announced Zam’s execution by hanging, causing a chorus of international outrage.
The execution comes days after Iran’s judiciary announced the Supreme Court had more than a month ago upheld a death sentence against the 47-year-old journalist.
France condemned the execution, which it described as a “serious attack on freedom of speech and freedom of the press” and a “barbaric and unacceptable act.”
