Iran upholds death sentence for dissident journalist it 'lured' from France
Iran said on Tuesday that its Supreme Court upheld a death sentence against a high-profile dissident journalist it caught after years of living in exile in France.
Ruhollah Zam was convicted of fomenting violence during anti-government protests in 2017.
Iran said that he was captured during an intelligence operation but did not specify where he was caught.
Before his arrest, Zam ran the AmadNews channel which had over a million followers on Telegram.
"Yes, the Supreme Court ... has upheld the sentence passed by the Revolutionary Court in this case," judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told a news conference streamed live on a judiciary website.
Zam fled Iran and was given asylum in France. In October 2019, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said it had "trapped" Zam in a "complex operation using intelligence deception". It did not say where the operation took place.
Iranian officials have accused the United States as well as Tehran's regional rival Saudi Arabia and government opponents living in exile of fomenting the unrest, which began in late 2017 as protests about economic hardship and corruption spread nationwide.
Officials said 21 people were killed during the unrest and thousands were arrested.
The unrest was among the worst Iran has seen in decades, and was followed by even deadlier protests last year against fuel price rises, which saw up to 1500 people killed, according to interior ministry sources.
Zam's AmadNews feed was suspended by messaging service Telegram in 2018 for fomenting violence but has reappeared under another name.
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