Iranian opponent Rouhollah Zam, a time exiled in France, was executed Saturday, December 12 in Iran, quickly after the confirmation of his death sentence for his role in the wave of protest in the winter of 2017-2018.
Read also: Iran: death sentence confirmed for opponent Rouhollah Zam
The "
counterrevolutionary
" Zam was hanged, state television reported, recalling that the Supreme Court had upheld his death sentence because of the "
gravity [of his] crimes
" against the Islamic Republic.
The spokesperson for the Judicial Authority, Gholamhossein Esmaïli, had indicated Tuesday, December 8, that this institution had ruled "
more than a month ago
" on the case of Zam and confirmed "
the verdict [rendered in June by the ] Revolutionary Court
”in Tehran.
Calling Zam a "
journalist and dissident
", the human rights organization Amnesty International, reacted quickly to the announcement, deeming that this confirmation marked "
a shocking escalation in Iran's use of the death penalty as a weapon. of repression
”.
The NGO also asked the European Union to intervene quickly with the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, "
so that he overturns this cruel verdict
".
Read also: Iran: death of Ayatollah Yazdi, former head of the judiciary
The press organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which accused Iran of kidnapping Zam while he was in Iraq in order to try him in the country, said on Saturday (December 12th) that it was "
shocked that [the Iranian authorities] have carried out their sentence
”.
Zam had lived in exile for several years in France before being arrested by the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, in obscure circumstances.
His arrest had been announced in October 2019, but Iran did not specify the place or the date of the facts, accusing the 40-year-old opponent of being "
led by French intelligence and supported
" by the secret services of the States. United and Israel.
Zam, who had refugee status in France, ran a channel (Amadnews) on the encrypted messaging platform Telegram, and was found guilty of playing an active role, through this medium, in the protest winter 2017-2018.
At least 25 people were killed in these disturbances which affected several dozen Iranian cities between December 28, 2017 and January 3, 2018. Tehran had qualified as “
sedition
” this movement of protest against the high cost of living which quickly took a political turn.
At the request of the Iranian authorities, Telegram had agreed to shut down Amadnews - which then had nearly 1.4 million subscribers - accusing this channel of having incited "
violence
".
Zam's trial opened in February.
According to the indictment, the opponent appeared
on charges of
“
corruption on earth
”, one of the most serious charges in the Islamic Republic of Iran, punishable by death.
He was also prosecuted for "
offenses against the internal and external security of the country
", "
espionage for the benefit of the French intelligence service
", and insulting the "
sacredness of Islam
".
The Judicial Authority had indicated in June that he had been found guilty of all the charges against him.
At the opening of the trial, Iranian state television broadcast a "
documentary
" about "
Rouhollah Zam's relations
".
In another "
interview
" with state television, detainee Zam appears claiming to have believed in reformist ideas until he was imprisoned for nearly three months during the great protest movement against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009, but denies inciting violence.
Amnesty International regularly calls on the Iranian authorities to stop broadcasting “
televised confessions
” by suspects who believe that these methods “
violate the rights of the defense
”.
Read also: Iran executed a young wrestler convicted of murder whom Trump had defended
In September, the execution of a young Iranian wrestler, Navid Afkari, for the murder of an official during anti-government protests in 2018 sparked an outcry abroad and on social media.
Many voices were raised to denounce what they described as the authorities' haste to execute a verdict, pronounced, according to Afkari's supporters, on the basis of confessions extracted under torture.
With at least 251 executions in 2019, Iran is the country that uses the death penalty the most after China, according to Amnesty International's latest global report on the death penalty.