{"id":8614,"date":"2020-12-31T18:40:25","date_gmt":"2020-12-31T15:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/?p=8614"},"modified":"2021-01-05T14:45:50","modified_gmt":"2021-01-05T11:45:50","slug":"irans-execution-of-ruhollah-zam-implications-and-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/monitoring-and-translation\/reports\/irans-execution-of-ruhollah-zam-implications-and-consequences\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s Execution of Ruhollah Zam: Implications and Consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Iran recently prosecuted and executed<\/a> Ruhollah Zam, a 42-year-old Iranian journalist. He was charged with committing \u201ccorruption on earth.\u201d  The execution is viewed  as a strong message from the Iranian political system to anyone who criticizes  it  and  prompted several European countries to boycott<\/a> an online business forum in Tehran. The European Union (EU) strongly condemned the execution, further straining relations between Iran and the EU.   Zam\u2019s execution has worsened Iran\u2019s international reputation, particularly after the execution<\/a> of Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari three months ago.  Zam\u2019s execution once again prompted the international community, including various international NGOs and human rights organizations, to strongly condemn the execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Zam was found guilty<\/a> by Iran\u2019s Supreme Court on an ambiguous charge of \u201ccorruption on earth\u201d\u2013 one of the most serious offenses in Iran. Amendments to Iran\u2019s penal code in 2013 increased the scope of offenses such as \u201ccorruption on earth\u201d to prosecute political activists\/dissidents and sentence them to death. Zam took part in the nationwide Green Movement<\/a> protests in 2009 in the aftermath of the disputed presidential election. After spending some time in jail, Zam sought asylum in France where he ran a news website called Amad News and coordinated a Telegram channel during the anti-government protests in 2017 and 2018. While reporting on a wide array of issues, Zam also investigated<\/a> and wrote on financial corruption in Iran and shared his findings which placed him under the spotlight of the Iranian leadership. As per some reports<\/a> in October 2019, Zam was persuaded to travel to Iraq based on what appeared to be an invitation from the office of Iraq\u2019s Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Upon reaching Iraq, reports suggest that he was kidnapped by the IRGC. However, Sistani\u2019s office  has rejected<\/a> these claims repeatedly. On reaching Iran, Zam was charged with national security violations for which Iran\u2019s Supreme Court sentenced him to death.   Zam was accused<\/a> of serious criminal activities including interfering with Iran\u2019s economy, spying on behalf of French intelligence, and conspiring with the United States and Saudi Arabia against Iran. Zam\u2019s execution is not an isolated incident with  multiple reports<\/a> indicating  Iran\u2019s role in a series of kidnappings and murders in 2020 alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran\u2019s execution of Zam is seen as a horrific violation of international human rights.  The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet said<\/a>, \u201cZam\u2019s death sentence and execution are emblematic of a pattern of forced confessions extracted under torture and broadcast on state media being used as a basis to convict people.\u201d Amid growing concerns about Iran\u2019s violations of human rights, some experts have  urged the EU to emphasize<\/a> human rights when  dealing with Tehran. The ambassadors of France, Germany, Italy and Austria boycotted<\/a> an online Iranian business forum and France called<\/a> the execution \u201cbarbaric and unacceptable.\u201d In addition, several  international NGOs like Reporters Without Borders<\/a> and Amnesty International<\/a> condemned the execution. Germany\u2019s PEN Center, an association of writers championing freedom of expression, released a statement urging that  Zam\u2019s execution should  lead to diplomatic and economic consequences and further suggested<\/a> renaming the street where the Iranian embassy is located in Berlin to Ruhollah-Zam-Allee to attract  wider attention to not only the execution but Iran\u2019s ongoing human rights violations. Leander Sukov, PEN Center\u2019s vice president, urged the Berlin Senate to adopt the suggestion as every letter sent to Iran\u2019s embassy would bear the name of Ruhollah Zam, thereby reminding the Iranian leadership of its heinous crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The new tensions with Iran over its human rights violations coincide with President-elect Joe Biden\u2019s inauguration next month.   During his presidential campaign, Biden had mentioned his intention to rejoin the nuclear deal if Iran complies with its provisions.  Amid a lot of speculation on how the incoming Biden administration will deal with Iran, some of Biden\u2019s top aides responded to Zam\u2019s execution. Biden\u2019s nominee for Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and the nominee for National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan called out<\/a> the execution and emphasized that the incoming US administration \u201cwill stand up to Iran\u2019s abuses.\u201d It is not clear as to what this means and implies, and whether the new administration will take steps such as imposing more sanctions on the Iranian political system or whether the human rights file will be incorporated into the nuclear deal along with other files such as Iran\u2019s ballistic missile program and interference in regional affairs or whether this file will be handled separately via punitive actions or coordination with European allies to heap extensive pressure on the Iranian leadership to address this file. It waits to be seen whether the Democrats take this file seriously, having turned a blind eye to it while signing the 2015 nuclear deal, letting the Iranian leadership off the hook for its crimes committed against its own citizens as well as against the peoples of the region in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iran recently prosecuted and executed Ruhollah Zam, a 42-year-old Iranian journalist. He was charged with committing \u201ccorruption on earth.\u201d The execution is viewed as a strong message from the Iranian political system to anyone who criticizes it and prompted several European countries to boycott an online business forum in Tehran. The European Union (EU) strongly condemned the execution, further straining relations between Iran and the EU. Zam\u2019s execution has worsened Iran\u2019s international reputation, particularly after the execution of Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari three months ago. Zam\u2019s execution once again prompted the international community, including various international NGOs and human rights organizations, to strongly condemn the execution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":8615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[247,5719,5718,5720],"class_list":["post-8614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports","tag-execution","tag-irans-execution","tag-ruhollah","tag-ruhollah-zam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8616,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8614\/revisions\/8616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}