Iran upholds death sentence for once-exiled jounalist

Iran has upheld a death sentence for a once-exiled journalist over his online work that helped inspire nationwide economic protests that began at the end of 2017.

Iran's judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said the initial sentence by the revolutionary court has been confirmed by the supreme court.

Ruhollah Zam's website and a channel he created on the popular messaging app Telegram had spread the timings of the protests and embarrassing information about officials that directly challenged Iran's Shiite theocracy.

Those demonstrations represented the biggest challenge to Iran since the 2009 Green Movement protests and set the stage for similar mass unrest last November.

The details of Zam's arrest still remain unclear.

A series of a televised confessions have aired in recent months over his work.

(Image credit: AP)