TEHRAN - Ruhollah Zam, the operator behind Amad News website and Telegram channel, in the second session of his trial on Sunday said that he had the highest security protection after French President Emmanuel Macron.

“The heaviest French security protection after Macron was for me,” Zam told the court.

In October 2019, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that Zam had been arrested during a complicated intelligence operation.

Zam launched Amad News in 2015. The channel frequently posted fake news stories and called for violence with the aim of overthrowing the Islamic Republic system.

During the protest rallies in December 2018, he urged the people to take arms against the government.

In its statement, the IRGC said it lured Zam into Iran using “clever, multidimensional and innovative tricks”, which even deceived foreign intelligence agencies.

The IRGC also said the French intelligence service was behind Zam’s activities, which were also backed by the U.S. and the Zionist regime’s spy services.

On Sunday, Zam told the court hearing that he had first visited Malaysia in 2011 and then moved to Turkey in 2012 and while there he met the French ambassador to get a visa to fly to France. 

Zam also said while in France he tried to get a permission to immigrate to the United States.
   
NA/PA