Tehran: Iran sentenced a once-exiled journalist to death over his online work. The writings of the journalist inspired nationwide economic protests that began at the end of 2017.
Ruhollah Zam’s website and a channel he created on the popular messaging app Telegram had spread the timings of the protests. It also provided embarrassing information about officials that directly challenged Iran’s Shiite theocracy.
Those demonstrations represented the biggest challenge to Iran since the 2009 Green Movement protests. It set the stage for similar mass unrest last November.
The details of his arrest still remain unclear. Though he was based in Paris, Zam somehow returned to Iran. He found himself detained by intelligence officials. A series of televised confessions have been aired in recent months over his work.
Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili announced Zam’s death sentence Tuesday. He said Zam had been convicted of ‘corruption on Earth’, a charge often used in cases involving espionage or attempts to overthrow Iran’s government. It was not immediately clear when the sentence was handed down.
Zam however, will be able to appeal his sentence, issued by a Revolutionary Court. The name of his public defender wasn’t immediately made public.
Zam had run a website called ‘AmadNews’ that posted embarrassing videos and information about Iranian officials. 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 the conservative city of Mashhad in eastern 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. His channel also shared times and organisational details for the protests as well.
Telegram shut down the channel over Iranian government complaints it spread information about how to make gasoline bombs. The channel later continued under a different name. Zam, who has said he fled Iran after being falsely accused of working with foreign intelligence services, denied inciting violence on Telegram at the time.