Ruhollah Zam’s Mother: The Whole World Knows You Were Innocent

The parents of Ruhollah Zam, the dissident journalist executed on December 12, have gathered at their son’s grave to deliver a message: “The world rose up against your oppression.”

Photographs of the couple at their son’s grave have been shared widely on both Persian and English-language social media sites.

On December 16, Mohammad Ali Zam, Zam’s father, announced on Instagram that the family had not been informed of the journalist’s execution, contrary to claims made by the public relations department of Tehran Prosecutor's Office that they had been told.

He wrote that he had been preparing to submit a request to the judicial authorities for his son to be granted a retrial when he received a phone call at 8am on Saturday, December 12 telling him to collect his son’s body.

He added that he had contacted Zam's lawyer in an attempt to challenge authorities’ allegations that the family and the lawyer had not submitted the appropriate documentation to apply for a retrial. He said he had not received any notification regarding their requests.

Ruhollah Zam, the founder and editor-in-chief of Amad News, had been living in exile in France, but was lured to Iraq in 2019, where he was abducted by the security apparatus of the Islamic Republic.

The judiciary sentenced Zam to death for "corruption on earth."

The execution was carried out less than three days after his sentence was upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court. He was hanged at Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj.