The Iranian government may have used a female intelligence officer to lure a leading Iranian dissident from his home in France in Iraq, where he was then kidnapped by Iranian security forces and secretly transported to Iran.
The Iranian authorities gave the news of the arrest of Ruhollah Zam last October 15, a news also confirmed by the images broadcast by the Iranian state television that broadcast a video showing Zam blindfolded surrounded by officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Zam, 46, was the leading online dissent voice during the 2009 Green Movement, an Iranian youth-based reform campaign whose leaders called for the overthrow of the government in Tehran. He joined other young Iranians in launching AmadNews, a website whose stated purpose was to "spread awareness and seek justice" in Iran. Shortly after its appearance, AmadNews became the online voice of the Green Movement. After a brief detention period in 2009, Zam fled Iran and settled in France, from where he continued his work online through AmadNews and a website and Telegram channel called Seda-ye Mardom (Voice of the People).
Earlier this month, the Iranian government announced that Zam had been caught in a "complicated intelligence operation" that used "modern intelligence methods and innovative tactics" to lure Zam out of France and into the hands of the IRGC without providing information on the method used to persuade Zam to move out of France and go to Iraq, whose government is closely aligned with that of Iran. A few days ago, however, the London newspaper The Times revealed that the IRGC used a woman to gain Zam's trust and lure him to Iraq.
Citing exiled Iranian activists who work closely with Zam, the British newspaper said the woman entered his life almost two years ago, thus indicating a lengthy intelligence operation by the IRGC. Over time, he gained his trust and eventually convinced him to travel to Jordan on October 11 and from there to Baghdad, Iraq on October 12. The reason for his trip was that, allegedly, the woman convinced him that Ali al-Sistani, one of the most prominent Shia clerics in Iraq, had agreed to finance Zam's online activities. However, the cleric had to speak in person with the exiled dissident before agreeing to finance his work, according to the woman. It is not known if Zam and the unnamed woman were romantically involved.
According to the Times, Zam's kidnapping and arrest have been met with "tacit approval" by French intelligence services who may have agreed to release two French academists imprisoned in Iran for alleged spying for over a year. .