Iran says its intelligence agents captured exiled opposition activist

Agents of Iran's Revolutionary Guards have captured and returned to Iran an exiled opposition figure who headed a popular anti-government social media outlet, Iranian state television reported on Monday. Ruhollah Zam, a journalist turned activist who headed Amadnews with has more 1 million followers on social media, was based in France and other parts of Europe.

Zam's capture was a "complex operation using intelligence deception", the Revolutionary Guards said in a statement carried by the television. It did not say where the operation took place. "Despite being under the guidance of the French intelligence service and under the protection of the U.S. and Zionist (Israeli) intelligence services, ... he (Zam) was trapped by the Revolutionary Guards intelligence service," the statement said.

Amadnews was suspended by the messaging app Telegram last year after Iran accused it of carrying calls for violence during street protests in the country. But the channel soon re-appeared under a new name.