Ruhollah Zam Wiki – Ruhollah Zam Biography
Ruhollah Zam was an Iranian journalist, who was accused of using a messaging app to stir up dissent.
He was hanged on Saturday after the supreme court upheld the death sentence against him, state television reported.
It is unclear how Zam, who had been living in exile in France, came to be arrested. He was reportedly detained after traveling to Iraq last year.
I knew #RuhollahZam through Facebook. A lot of journalists and activists knew him or had communicated with him at some point during his years in exile. His execution is as heartbreaking as it is a crime.
— Shahin Milani (@shahinmilani81) December 12, 2020
Age
He was 42 years old.
Early Life
He was born into a clerical family in Tehran in 1978. His father, Mohammad-Ali Zam, is a reformist who served in senior government positions in the 1980s and 1990s. Ruhollah Zam turned against the establishment after the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests, and he was imprisoned in Evin Prison for some time. Zam fled Iran to reside in France.
Arrest
On 14 October 2019, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced they had lured Zam back to Iran and arrested him. The guards posted the news of his arrest on Zam’s Telegram channel with a following of over a million users, effectively taking over the administration of the popular channel.
Trial
The court hearing was held at the branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolution Court, presided over by Judge Abolqasem Salavati. Ruhollah Zam was sentenced to death according to the judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili.
Ruhollah Zam Execution
Iran has executed a once-exiled journalist over his online work that helped inspire nationwide economic protests in 2017, authorities have said.
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Iranian state television, the state-run IRNA news agency, and the semi-official Nour news agency all said Ruhollah Zam was hanged early on Saturday morning.
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.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) at the time said his trials were “grossly unfair”.
Zam, who was captured in 2019 after years in exile, was executed four days after the Iranian Supreme Court upheld the death sentence against him that was earlier issued by a revolutionary court.
