Iranian journalist Ruholá Zam is executed by hanging for inciting protests

Iranian activist and journalist Ruhollah Zam, director of the website Amadnews, was hanged on Saturday after being sentenced to death for inciting anti-government protests in Iran in late 2017, the Revolutionary and General Prosecutor's Office in Tehran said in a statement.

"Zam was sentenced to death on 13 counts, including corruption in the land, and his sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court and after legal proceedings in the early hours of today, December 12, 2020, his death sentence was carried out and he was hanged," the statement said.

Corruption on earth" is the name given in Iran to the most serious charges such as murder, terrorism or taking up arms against the state, and which Islamic jurisprudence usually punishes by hanging.

Ruhollah Zam, who lived in exile in France for several years, was arrested in Iran in 2019 by the intelligence service of the Corps of the Guardians of the Revolution after falling "into a trap" of this elite group which managed to get him to travel to Iran, according to the publication of the Corps.

According to the authorities, Zam took advantage of his status as the son of the cleric Mohamad Ali Zam to approach the offspring of high-ranking officials in the country and obtain sensitive information about the theocratic regime.

During the protests against the famine in Iran in December 2017, which led to criticism of the system, Zam's Telegram Amadnews channel published a lot of information and pictures.

This channel was blocked by Iran, which accused the activist and journalist of inciting violence and of being "a tool in the hands of foreign spy services" against Iran.

These protests, in which more than twenty people died and thousands were arrested, were followed by others in November 2019 against the rise in petrol prices and the Iranian theocratic system, which were even more deadly.

Zam was already in prison in Iran for his participation in the 2009 Green Movement demonstrations against the re-election of the ultraconservative president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

After being released, he went into exile in France, where he resided until his arrest last year.