Iran Summons German Envoy After Journalist’s Execution Denounced

(Bloomberg) -- Iran’s foreign ministry summoned the German ambassador after his country said it was horrified at the Islamic Republic for executing a dissident journalist, the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency reported.

Ruhollah Zam, who ran a Telegram channel that campaigned against the Islamic Republic from his base in Paris, was hanged on Saturday morning after he was accused of inciting widespread unrest in late 2017 and convicted of “corruption on earth,” a capital offense in Iran.

The son of a prominent cleric who had claimed asylum in France in 2009, Zam was lured to Iraq last year as part of an Iranian intelligence operation. He was then captured in the city of Karbala and taken to Tehran where he was immediately imprisoned and put on trial, state media reported at the time.

In a statement, Germany’s foreign office said on Saturday that the government was “horrified” at the hanging.

“We are shocked by the circumstances surrounding the conviction, particularly by the preceding kidnapping from abroad,” the foreign office said.

Death Sentence for Iranian Journalist Accused in 2017 Unrest

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