Son of the Mullah - Escape from Iran | DW Documentary

Iranian journalist Roohollah Zam grew up within the Iranian clerical regime. His father is a member of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s inner circle. But the more Zam learned about the regime, the more critical he became - until he had to flee.

Zam was forced to leave his home country after he publicly denounced electoral fraud during the re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009. He fled to France and was granted asylum. He began running the news channel ‘Amadnews’, exposing Iran's money laundering activities, among other things. Following death threats, Roohollah Zam was placed under the protection of the French authorities - along with his wife and their children.

The Swedish-Iranian director Nahid Persson Sarvestani wondered: Why, and how, does a person endure such hardships? Zam wasn’t able to leave the house for fear of being attacked. He was so deprived of fresh air, he was forced to sleep with an oxygen mask.

Nahid Persson Sarvestani documented the family's life in exile, and witnessed up close how the Iranian regime succeeded in infiltrating Roohollah Zam's network, despite all precautions. Roohollah Zam was lured into a trap and abducted to Iran. After 14 months in prison, a forced confession and a show trial that Iranians can watch live on television, he was sentenced to death and executed.

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