19 October/20 October 2019 ★ FTWeekend 5
N A J M E H B OZO R G M E H R— TEHRAN
From his homes in France and Turkey,
Ruhollah Zam called on his one million
followers on social media to reveal what
they knew about the Tehran political
elite’s alleged corrupt dealings and sex-
ualaffairs.
Through the Amadnews channel on
the popular Telegram app, Mr Zam
encouraged Iranians to try to overthrow
the Tehran regime, even p roviding
online tutorials on how to make petrol
bombsduringtheunrestoflate2017.
So for many Iranians it came as a
shock to see the 46-year-old son of a
former reformist official b ack in Tehran
this week, on state television, express-
ing regret for his past opposition to the
regime and advising people not to ever
trustforeignintelligenceservices.
Almost immediately, hundreds of
thousands of people stopped following
hisaccountontheTelegramappforfear
they would get into trouble with the
securityservices.
Quite how Mr Zam ended up back in
Iran has raised questions about the
reach of Iranian intelligence services
and their collaboration with interna-
tional agencies, as well as the determi-
nation of the Tehran regime to quash
dissent,whereveritmanifestsitself.
“Theguardsaresendinganimportant
messagetotheoppositioninsideandout-
side the country that they are not secure
wherever they are,” said a reformist pol-
itician. “There could be a new crack-
down if the guards can get hold of those
insideIranwhogaveZaminformation.”
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps did not say when and where it
captured Mr Zam, whom it described in
a statement as “a vicious figure and a
traitor”. The elite force said he was
“guided into the country” in a “compli-
cated and professional operation” and
by employing “modern intelligence
techniques” which helped “fool... the
enemies’ intelligence services” includ-
ing those of France, the US and Israel,
whichitallegedhadhelpedMrZam.
“My husband was abducted,” Mahsa
Razani, Mr Zam’s wife, told the BBC Per-
sian Service from their home in France.
“I saw [reports] of his arrest on Iranian
television and could not believe it until I
saw the video when I realised he was
kidnapped.”
Mr Zam, who has refugee status in
France and a residence permit, enjoyed
protection from French security forces
and had told them he intended to travel
toIraqviaJordanonOctober11,shesaid.
MrZamsetoffforIraqandsenthiswife
aselfiefromAmmanairport.Adaylater
she received a one-minute phone call
from him that struck her as suspicious
andthenheardnothinguntilshesawhim
onIraniantelevisionafewdayslater.
ReportsinIransuggestedhehadbeen
seduced by an Iranian woman who per-
suaded him to travel to Iraq. His wife
said he was travelling for a business
meeting and knew and trusted the
woman in question. Mr Zam was eager
to raise funds for a television channel, a
friendofhishastoldIranianmedia.
ThetriptoIraqwasplannedsuddenly
after a phone call from Shirin Najafi, an
administrator at Amadnews, who
showed him €15m in €500 notes on her
bed and told him to come to Iraq to take
themoneytoParis,thefriendadded.Mr
Zam is then believed to have been
arrested in Iraq and handed over to the
Iranians. The friend alleged that Ms
Najafi had been turned by Iranian secu-
rity forces. Ms Najafi denies inviting Mr
ZamtoIraqandisnowinhiding.
Across Iranian social media, specula-
tion is rife that the French intelligence
service collaborated with the Revolu-
tionary Guards to secure the release of
two French academics in jail in Iran. “It
is not impossible for Iran to reach a deal
with French or other intelligence serv-
ices but Iran is also capable of engineer-
ing this operation on its own without
foreignhelp,”saidoneanalyst.
The French foreign ministry in a
statement has condemned the arrest
and said it was following the case “very
closely” while “we reiterate our com-
mitment to upholding the rule of law
andinparticular,thefreedomofexpres-
sionandtherightofasylum”.
The arrest comes at a sensitive time
for the Islamic republic which fears a US
plot to bring about regime change by
usingeconomicsanctionstofomentdis-
content. In this thinking, Iranian expa-
triates are pawns in a battle between
western and Iranian intelligence serv-
ices. “The operation was a great success
for the Revolutionary Guards, which
managed a complicated intelligence
operation,” said Mohammad-Ali Abtahi,
aformerreformistvice-president.
It is also a blow for Amadnews. Its
journalistic scoops include rape allega-
tions against a member of parliament
and allegations that a former judiciary
chief had transferred state money to
more than 60 unsupervised personal
accounts and his daughter was a British
spy. It has also alleged that delays to
Brexit negotiations are part of an Ira-
nian plot to distract Westminster from
theIslamicrepublic.
“Ruhollah Zam per se is not impor-
tant but his channel turned into a junc-
tion where all opposition groups outside
Iran used Amadnews to throw in fake
and real news and manipulate public
opinion,”saidMrAbtahi.
As an activist, Mr Zam attracted criti-
cism,evenfromreformists.“Journalism
is not a crime and Ruhollah Zam is not a
journalist,”MashallahShamsolvaezin,a
pro-reform Iranian journalist, wrote on
Twitter.
Additional reporting by Victor Mallet
in ParisIslamic republic.Espionage
Iran expat’s
arrest stokes
fears of new
crackdown
Dissident disappears only to
turn up on state TV in Tehran
regretting his opposition
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
R O B I N H A R D I N G— TOKYO
Japan is considering sending a military
force to the Strait of Hormuz, Tokyo
said yesterday, in a move that would
embroil the pacifist nation in a tense
stand-off between Iran and the US.
Yoshihide Suga, chief cabinet secretary,
said the government was planning to
deployforcesinaregionwhereJapanese
tanker Kokuka Courageous was
recentlyattackedwithalimpetmine.
A deployment would be the latest in a
series of assertive foreign policy moves
by Shinzo Abe, who visited Iran in June.
The prime minister has tested the con-
stitutional boundaries that govern the
useofJapan’sSelf-DefenceForces.
“The peace and stability of the Middle
East is extremely important for the
peace and stability of international soci-
ety, including our country,” said Mr
Suga.HesaidthatJapanwouldnotjoina
US military coalition in the area but act
independently.
The Middle East is on high alert fol-
lowing attacks against energy infra-
structure in the region, including a mid-
September drone strike on a vital oil
processing centre in Saudi Arabia, as
well as Turkey’s incursion into north-
east Syria. Relations between Washing-
ton and Tehran are also tense after the
US withdrew from a deal with Iran to
prevent it gaining nuclear weapons and
imposedsanctions.
There have been tit-for-tat seizures of
vessels, prompting concern about free-
dom of navigation in the Strait of Hor-
muz, a vital artery for Japan’s oil supply
fromtheMiddleEast.
Japan traditionally has a friendly rela-
tionship with Iran and is reluctant to
takesidesinadisputewiththeUS.Ithas
delayed a decision on dispatching the
Self-DefenceForcesformonths.
The pacifist constitution tightly pro-
scribes how Japan can deploy its mili-
tary, and any ships it sends would use
forceonlyinself-defence.Hormuz
Japan on verge of deploying
military force to Gulf strait
Ruhollah Zam, who
has refugee status
in France and a
residence permit,
was under French
security protectionThousands of Lebanese take to the streets of Beirut yesterday in the second day of nationwide protests against high prices, new tax proposals and a political
elite perceived to be corrupt. The protests initially broke out over a plan, since abandoned, to tax WhatsApp calls— Hassan Ammar/APUnpopular callLebanon anger over WhatsApp tax boils over