Following monthslong proceedings, the Iranian judiciary has given the death penalty to Rouhollah Zam, the 47-year-old journalist who founded and operated Amad News, which served as an opposition outlet on the social media platform Telegram.

Judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossein Esameeli told a televised briefing June 30 that the verdict is still subject to appeal and a final ruling lies with Iran’s Supreme Court. Given the sensitivity and high-profile nature of the case, however, an acquittal appears unlikely. Zam was tried on 17 counts of "security" charges, ranging from espionage for Israel and France to inciting deadly violence, leaking classified intelligence and insulting the Iranian supreme leader. Esmaeeli said 13 of those charges were instances of “corruption on earth,” a wide-ranging felony punishable by execution under the Islamic Republic’s penal code.

The court was presided over by Judge Abol-Qasem Salavati, who owes his notoriety to harsh verdicts against Iranian journalists, dissidents and protesters. During the previous session June 9, Zam pleaded not guilty to the leading charges, arguing that what he has done is nothing but journalism.

The son of a once-influential cleric, Zam was arrested in October in what Iran boasted about as a sophisticated operation. The dissident journalist was reportedly enticed into landing in neighboring Iraq. The exact details of how he was apprehended in Iraq and transferred to Iran remain unclear. But according to an exclusive BBC Persian report, Iraqi authorities captured the journalist upon arrival in Baghdad and turned him in to Iranian intelligence authorities under a bilateral extradition agreement.