Iranian authorities announced Tuesday that a journalist who helped to inspire widespread protests in 2017 has been sentenced to death.
Ruhollah Zam ran a website called AmadNews on which he posted embarrassing information about Iranian leaders. Zam was first arrested during the 2009 'Green Revolution' protests in Iran. Afterwards he lived in exile in Paris, but returned to Iran and was arrested in October, 2019.
Zam ran a channel on the messaging app Telegram on which he posted videos from the 2017 demonstrations in Iran.
Telegram blocked the channel under pressure from the Iranian government.
Zam is the son of Shia cleric Mohammad Ali Zam, who served in the Iranian government in the early 1980s; The elder Zam published a letter in July, 2017 in which he disavowed his son's reporting and videos.
Zam's death sentence was announced by Iranian judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili.