16 December 2020 :
France Pulls Out of Business Conference in Protest Against Execution.
The French foreign ministry has pulled out of the Europe Iran Business Forum conference in protest against the execution of dissident journalist Ruhollah Zam, which it described as “barbaric”.
The conference was due to take place from December 14 to December 16. Austria and Germany also announced that they would not be participating.
Following these announcements, the Europe Iran Business Forum postponed the conference, stating that “over 3,300 individuals from 40 countries registered to participate in the forum.”
“European and Iranian policymakers continue to engage in the necessary dialogue to establish the appropriate conditions for effective economic diplomacy. The organizers of the Europe-Iran Business Forum look forward to holding the conference in the near future in order to achieve our goals in full.”
The French government was quick to condemn Zam’s execution on December 12, the day it was carried out. A revolutionary court found him guilty on a range of charges that it said amounted to “corruption on earth”.
Zam was the founder and head of Amad News, an independent website and Telegram channel that came to public attention because of its reporting during the 2017 protests across Iran.
