Ruhollah Zam had been convicted of encouraging an antigovernment uprising in 2017 through a Telegram channel he ran from exile in France.
Iran executed a dissident on Saturday after convicting him of encouraging a wave of antigovernment protests in 2017 through an opposition Telegram channel he ran from exile in France, Iranian news outlets reported. Ruhollah Zam ran Amad News, a popular channel on the messaging platform Telegram, which he used to sharelogistical details about the protests that rocked Iran in late 2017. His posts included protesters’ videos that helped publicize the news of the uprising at a time when the country was trying to suppress information. He had been in exile in France since 2011 and lived there until 2019, when he flew to Iraq and was later captured by the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. He was hanged after being convicted in June of the crime “corruption on earth,” which is often used to describe attempts to overthrow the Iranian government. The press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders condemned Iran for hanging Mr. Zam. The group said on Twitter that it was “outraged at this new crime of Iranian justice and sees @ali_khamenei as the mastermind of this execution,” referring to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
