Iran faced growing international backlash on Monday over the execution of France-based dissident Ruhollah Zam, with Western governments accusing Tehran of kidnapping him abroad to face trial.
Zam was hanged Saturday after being sentenced to death for his role in protests in the winter of 2017-18, when he ran a popular social media channel that rallied opponents of the regime.
He lived in Paris for several years after he was granted refugee status in France.
In October 2019 he left Paris for a trip to Iraq.
The motives for his trip remain unclear, but activists say he was lured to travel to Iraq, detained by Iranian security forces and then transferred to Iran for trial.
“The US strongly condemns the unjust, barbaric execution of Ruhollah Zam, an Iranian journalist abducted by the regime abroad,” said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The German Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday that it was shocked by the circumstances surrounding Zam’s conviction “in particular by the … abduction from abroad”.
UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said she was “shocked” by the execution, adding that there is “grave concern” that Zam’s arrest outside Iran “could amount to a kidnapping”.
After Iranian state television broadcast an ‘interview’ with Zam while he was detained in July, Bachelet also said his verdict was’ symbolic of a pattern of forced confessions extracted under torture and broadcast on state media that were used as a basis to condemning people. . “
– ‘Exceptional stepping stone’ –
The international furor over Zam’s execution also comes at an extremely delicate time, with European powers looking to revive the international deal on Iran’s nuclear program when incoming US President Joe Biden takes office next year.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday called on emissaries from Germany and France to protest the EU’s conviction of his execution over the weekend.
In one fell swoop for advocates of dialogue and trade with Iran, organizers postponed a major trade forum between Iran and Europe that was due to begin Monday.
The three-day Europe-Iran Business Forum would kick off with keynote speeches from Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Josep Borrell, EU foreign policy chief, followed by a panel of EU ambassadors.
“The organizing committee of the Europe-Iran Business Forum has decided to take the exceptional step of postponing the conference,” the organizers said in a statement late Sunday.
“The European and Iranian business communities continue to see significant potential and value in commercial exchanges,” they added, expressing the hope that the conference will take place in the near future.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs had said on its Twitter account that after Zam’s “barbaric and unacceptable execution”, its ambassador in Tehran, as well as those of Germany, Austria and Italy, have stopped participating in the forum.
“#nobusinessas usual”, it said in a hashtag.
– Instrument of repression ‘-
But in Tehran, President Hassan Rouhani predicted that relations between Iran and Europe would not suffer from the execution.
“I don’t think this issue will harm relations between Iran and Europe,” Rouhani told reporters, pointing out that the death penalty is part of Iranian law.
Activists have argued that the execution should bring global attention to the use of the death penalty in Iran, three months after the execution of wrestler Navid Afkari – who was convicted of murdering an official during protests – caused widespread anger.
Iran executes more people every year than any country other than China.
Amnesty International said Zam “was kidnapped by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps on a visit to Iraq in October 2019, apparently with the help of Iraqi intelligence services, and returned to Iran by force.”
Tara Sepehri Far, a Human Rights Watch researcher, said in a statement that the execution “demonstrates the extent to which Iran has armed the cruel and inhumane use of the death penalty as a tool of repression.”
Also Monday, the United States for the first time accused Iran of direct involvement in the “probable death” of former FBI agent Bob Levinson, who disappeared 13 years ago, and imposed sanctions on two intelligence agents.
“We will not give in to prosecuting those who played a role in his disappearance,” Pompeo said.
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