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“Iran is failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the Obama Administration. The great Iranian people have been repressed for many years. They are hungry for food & for freedom. Along with human rights, the wealth of Iran is being looted. TIME FOR CHANGE!” -President Donald Trump, (1-1-18)-<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Iranian journalist Ruhollah Zam, whose reporting helped spur large anti-government protests, was executed<\/a> by Iran on Saturday morning, according to reports by state media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zam, 47, was found guilty of \u201ccorruption on earth\u201d and sentenced to death<\/a> in June 2020. The sentence was upheld by Iran\u2019s Supreme Court on Tuesday this week, shortly before his execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The vague charge of \u201ccorruption on earth\u201d is often used \u201cin cases involving espionage or attempts to overthrow Iran\u2019s government,\u201d Al Jazeera reported Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zam ran the site Amad News and coordinated a Telegram channel, both of which helped spread information during a wave of anti-regime protests that shook Iran<\/a> in 2017 and 2018. He was living abroad in Paris at the time, but returned to the Middle East in 2019 and was arrested in Iraq by members of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s unclear exactly why Zam returned to the region, but Karim Sadjadpour, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,\u00a0tweeted<\/a>\u00a0Saturday that Zam was \u201creportedly lured to Iraq (from France), kidnapped, taken back to Iran, and tortured into confession. He leaves behind a wife and two daughters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zam\u2019s execution has drawn international condemnation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The international human rights group Amnesty International<\/a> argued Zam\u2019s conviction stemmed from a \u201cgrossly unfair trial\u201d and his execution \u2014 by hanging \u2014 was rushed following the Supreme Court ruling in a \u201creprehensible bid to avoid an international campaign to save his life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith the execution of Roohollah Zam, Iranian authorities join the company of criminal gangs and violent extremists who silence journalists by murdering them,\u201d Committee to Protect Journalists program coordinator Sherif Mansour said in a statement<\/a> Saturday. \u201cThis is a monstrous and shameful act, and one which the international community must not let pass unnoticed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zam primarily drew the ire of the Iranian regime for his role in a spate of protests almost three years ago. According to the CPJ<\/a>, he used Amad News and Telegram to spread \u201cembarrassing information about Iranian officials and the timings and locations of protests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Vox\u2019s Zack Beauchamp explained<\/a> in 2018 when the protests were at their height, the demonstrations were sparked by outrage over the price of basic goods \u2014 specifically, eggs \u2014 but quickly morphed into something far larger, coming to encompass a wide range of frustrations with Iran\u2019s government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The protests began in Iran\u2019s second-largest city, Mashhad, but gained momentum and reach as more and more people joined in. According to Beauchamp:<\/p>\n\n\n\n These newcomers shifted the tone of the protest blaming [Iranian President Hassan Rouhani] for the poor economic performance to blaming the Iranian government and political system more broadly.<\/p> Then the protests began spreading to dozens of towns and cities across Iran. By January 2, protests had been recorded \u201cin nearly every province\u201d in the country, according to the Associated Press<\/a>. And these protests were targeting not just the Rouhani presidency but the Islamic Republic itself \u2014 chanting, \u201cDeath to the dictator\u201d (referring to Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei), and, \u201cDeath to the Revolutionary Guard,\u201d referring to Iran\u2019s security forces. They\u2019ve also called out the government\u2019s support for the Assad regime, questioning why Iran is spending money there when there are problems at home.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n All told, tens of thousands of people across the country turned out to protest against the theocratic Iranian regime, and at least 21 people<\/a> were killed by security forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n President Donald Trump \u2014 who has consistently taken a hard line against Iran and withdrew<\/a> the US from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, better known as the Iran nuclear deal \u2014 tweeted<\/a> in support of the protests at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe great Iranian people have been repressed for many years,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are hungry for food & for freedom. Along with human rights, the wealth of Iran is being looted. TIME FOR CHANGE!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The protests eventually subsided<\/a> in January 2018, but remain among the largest the country has seen since the 2009 Green Movement<\/a>, which demanded democratic reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time, Iran\u2019s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,\u00a0blamed the 2018 protests<\/a>\u00a0on the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. All three countries, as well as a handful of others, were mentioned in a filmed \u201capology\u201d \u2014 very likely a coerced apology \u2014 Zam made, that was\u00a0shared<\/a>\u00a0by Iran\u2019s Tasnim News Agency after the journalist was arrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zam fled Iran after the Green Movement protests, which were catalyzed by Iran\u2019s June 2009 presidential election. He was granted asylum<\/a> in France and lived there until his capture by Iran in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recently, Iran has been wracked by even more protests \u2014 first over a sharp hike to fuel prices in 2019<\/a>, and then following the 2020 destruction of a Ukrainian jetliner flying out of Tehran<\/a> by Iranian security forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The country has also faced external pressures: Just last month, Iran\u2019s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was assassinated<\/a>, driving regional tensions even higher. President-elect Joe Biden has indicated that he plans to reenter the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran \u2014 first negotiated by President Barack Obama while Biden was vice president \u2014 once he takes office, but Fakhrizadeh\u2019s death has been seen by some analysts as making even a moderate rapprochement between the US and Iran more difficult to achieve<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s unclear what impact, if any, Zam\u2019s execution will have on Iran\u2019s already poor international reputation. The country is a notorious human rights abuser and executed<\/a> wrestler Navid Afkari in September this year for the alleged murder of a security guard during the same 2018 protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf I am executed, I want you to know that an innocent person, even though he tried and fought with all his strength to be heard, was executed,\u201d Afkari said before his death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The US, in the midst of its own spate of executions<\/a> \u2014 some of prisoners of questionable guilt<\/a> \u2014 has signaled of late that it intends to continue to apply pressure on Iran, particularly on nuclear issues<\/a>. And in its statement Saturday, Amnesty International called for the global community to take action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe world must not stand by in silence as the Iranian authorities take their already horrific attacks on the right to life and freedom [of] expression to unprecedented levels,\u201d the group said. \u201cWe call on the international community, including member states of the UN Human Rights Council and the EU, to take immediate action to pressure the Iranian authorities to halt their escalating use of the death penalty as a weapon of political repression.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zam was best known for reporting on a wave of anti-regime protests in 2018. [If ever there was a criminal indictment against Islam, the nation-state of Iran would serve as a poster child given its history of crimes against humanity.] … Continue reading
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\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s been a tumultuous three years in Iran<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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