"Ezzatollah Zarghami": If the regime falls, I will be among the first ten people to be executed

Ezatollah Zarghami stated in an interview: "If the regime falls, I will be among the first ten people to be executed without trial."

Seyyed Ezatollah Zarghamidzadeh (born March 2009) is an Iranian politician and military officer who served as the Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts from 1400 to 1403 and is now a member of the Supreme Council for Cyberspace. He was a member of the Supreme Council for the Cultural Revolution before 1400, when the European Union sanctioned him in 2012 for widespread and severe violations of the rights of Iranian citizens. In addition to the European sanctions, the United States Treasury Department also sanctioned him in the same year for human rights violations.

Zarghami began his political activity in 1982 in the Revolutionary Guard Corps and its radio program, and was one of the followers of the Imam's line who also played a role in the occupation of the American embassy. From 1992 to 1993, he was the Deputy Minister of Culture and Guidance for Parliamentary Affairs, and from 1995 to 1997, he was the Deputy Minister of Culture for Cinematic Affairs.

Ezatollah Zarghami was transferred to the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Support in the seventh government and served as the deputy minister of defense for parliamentary affairs in the ministry from 1976 to 1979. In 1979, during Ali Larijani's presidency of the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation, he was appointed deputy for parliamentary and provincial affairs at the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation and remained active in this position until 2004. He served as the head of the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation for ten years between 2004 and 2014.

Zarghami played an important role in the emergence of the 2009 January 2009 movement by showing images of the tearing of Khomeini's photo and the burning of Imam Hussein's mourning flags on the day of Ashura. He was also involved in broadcasting the confessions of protesters as the head of the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation. Zarghami also ordered the broadcasting of the confessions of a number of detainees and the trials of defendants during the protests against the results of the 2009 presidential election on the IRIB television channels, which announced in August 2017 that the broadcasting of the confessions of the protesters had been carried out with the notification of the National Security Council.

Now, Ezzatollah Zarghami has claimed in a video interview that if the Islamic Republic's regime changes, he is among ten people who will be executed without trial. He said in the interview: "I am in power now, but I have no position. If the regime changes right now and, God forbid, the system collapses and ten people are to be executed without trial, Zarghami will definitely be one of them, and if they don't execute me, it will happen to me."

His claim about his execution, without trial, after the regime change, indicates that the regime is aware of its own collapse from within and is breathing its last breaths.