Press advocacy and human rights groups have displayed outrage over the execution of Iranian journalist Ruhollah Zam, with any campaigners declaring it a “surprising increase” in the value of the end sentence by Iran against dissenters.
Zam, who was sentenced for stoking anti-government uprising during public demonstrations some three years ago, was arrested in 2019 after years of existing in exile in France. He was convicted to death in June.
Responding to the news of the killing on Saturday morning, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced on Twitter it is “offended at this new violation of Iranian justice and examines
[Supreme Leader] Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the founder of this execution”.
Global rights watchdog Amnesty International announced it was “astounded and dismayed” by Iran’s action.
“His execution is a fatal blow to freedom of expression in Iran and reveals the extent of the Iranian officials’ brutal tactics to instil fear and deter difference,” Amnesty stated.
It continued that after the Supreme Court upheld Zam’s death penalty on Tuesday, “officials rushed to kill Zam a mere four days later, in what we consider was a wicked bid to withdraw a worldwide battle to save his life”.
Tara Sepehri Far, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, described the increase “a surprising increase in the value of the death sentence against dissenters”, figuring that Zam was done on “vaguely described national security management”.
Iran is one of the world’s top killers.