On December 12, the Iranian government executed Ruhollah Zam, a prominent Iranian journalist, and dissident, after convicting him on vague national security charges. Zam’s execution demonstrates the threat the Iranian regime poses to political dissidents, including those living abroad. It also underscored the country’s continuous disregard for international law and norms. The United States and its allies are investing significantly in pushing back against Iran’s growing influence in the Middle East and worldwide. But, they must do more to protect Iranian dissidents from the regime’s wrath. This includes providing these individuals with a safe space where they can voice their opinions and concerns. The West should continue to enforce sanctions against the Persian nation if it continues to crack down on dissidents and free speech.
Zam’s story is emblematic of the ongoing threats that Iranian dissidents face daily. Zam founded the popular Telegram channel, Amadnews, which accrued over one million followers. Through the channel, Zam reported on cases of alleged financial corruption in Iran. He also shared videos of the nationwide protests that swept across Iran in 2017, which led to his arrest during the 2009 post-election protests. Once free, he escaped Iran and sought asylum in France. However, in October 2019, the regime reportedly lured Zam to Iraq with an invitation he believed had come from the Grand Ayatollah Sistani. He was subsequently abducted by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and forcibly returned to Iran, where the regime put him on trial, tortured him into a false confession, and was executed four days after he was deemed guilty. According to statements made by Iranian authorities as well as court documents, Zam’s work involved “espionage” for Israel and France, cooperation with Iran’s enemy, the United States, “crimes against national security,” and “spreading propaganda against the system.”
Other Iranian political dissidents have faced similar challenges and threats offline and traversing the online public sphere. For example, a few days before Zam’s death, Masih Alinejad, Iran’s leading anti-compulsory hijab activist, received death threats on Twitter from over 100 accounts. Many of these threats emphasized that her death would be next. Indeed, platforms like Twitter and Telegram, once a safe place to voice their opinions, have become a haven for the Iranian regime to target dissidents and threaten their families. According to the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, numerous BBC Persian Service journalists face death threats from Iranian authorities. These include Rana Rahimpour, who in February 2020 received a written message warning that she and her family would be assassinated within a month.
The Iranian regime’s distaste for opposition extends beyond journalists as well. In 2020, Canadian-Iranian Hamed Esmaeilion received death threats after demanding the Iranian government be held accountable for killing his wife, daughter, and dozens of others when it shot down Ukrainian flight PS752 in January 2020.
This ongoing trend of targeting individuals who express any form of opposition against the Iranian government is extremely concerning and demonstrates the regime’s willingness to shirk international law in favor of using extra-territorial force to silence nonconformers. Many of these dissidents have been subject to harassment, unwarranted surveillance, defamation, freezing of assets, and vague criminal investigations that threaten their physical safety and emotional wellbeing.
In many instances, the Iranian regime has been accused of “honey trapping” dissidents by luring individuals being protected by Western governments to specific locations where they can be abducted or killed. For example, in December 2020, Sky News found that Iranian and Turkish authorities collaborated to carry out a cross-border kidnap plan, which resulted in the capture of Iranian opposition activist Habib Chaab. Similarly, in August 2020, Jamshid Sharmahd, a California-based Iranian-German journalist, was abducted and transferred to Iran while traveling to India via Dubai. Zam’s abduction is also a prime example of such a honey trapping effort. In many of these cases, captured dissidents are kept in traumatizing prison environments, tortured, and forced to make false confessions, under the illusion that they will be released if they admit to the crime.
As the Iranian regime continues to expand its influence across the Middle East and around the world, it is demonstrating a flagrant disregard for international laws and norms and is increasingly working to suppress dissidents and opposition members worldwide. As Western powers and their allies team up to curb the spread of Iran’s influence, they must do more to protect dissidents from the Iranian regime. The West should grant asylum to Iranian dissidents, provide them with a safe space to voice their opinions, and enforce sanctions against the Iranian regime to end these harmful behaviors. Failure to hold Iran accountable for its treatment of political dissidents suggests that fundamental international laws and human rights are not important and emboldens Iran’s violations in this regard.
