A blackout photo of Nizar Zakka altered by Kevin Rothrock. Image of Zakka speaking at the ‘High Level Policy Statements’ session at the 2015 World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva, May 2015 (Image from the ITU Pictures flickr page). He would be arrested a few months later in Iran. After a year behind bars in Iran, Lebanese citizen Nizar Zakka was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a $4.2 million US dollar fine on 20 September 2016. It is believed that Zakka was originally arrested in Iran due to his “deep ties” to U.S. intelligence and work on “Internet freedom”-related projects. Iranian officials have not publicly released information regarding his conviction or the charges filed against Zakka. Neither the Lebanese nor the U.S. governments have made any public statement on his behalf. There have been many other arrests for direct or loose associations through programs connected to European or American organizations. Similar cases include the British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, of the Thomson Reuters Foundation and Iranian-American Siamak Namazi, who worked to cultivate ties between the U.S. and Iran. The continued incarceration of Arash Zad, an Iranian entrepreneur who was active and present in start-up conferences and networks in Turkey and Europe, however is the best example of how precarious the situation can be. As far as it can be known, Zad is a non-political technologist now caught in this narrative of paranoia around “western-intrusion”. These cases should come as no surprise to people working in this field. But they should generate more awareness about the risks incurred by those traveling to Iran, particularly in the new environment of post-nuclear deal paranoia. As the country draws closer to presidential elections in May 2017, the push and pull between moderate, reformist and hardline elements are likely to increase these politicized arrests. A Lebanese citizen with permanent residency in the U.S., Zakka was active among organizations working on Internet governance issues in the Middle East. He led the Arab ICT Organization IJMA3.org, a Beirut-based industry consortium and promoter of ICT for development in the region that was launched as part of a USAID initiative known as the IT Mentor Alliance. The AP reported that since 2009, Zakka has received at least USD $730,000 in funding from the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to run various programs for IJMA3. Images of Zakka wearing what Iranian media called an American military uniform. Zakka's alma mater publicly stated that Zakka wore the uniform for the military academy's homecoming. Photo from Fars News Agency, published with the intent to republish. Prior to his arrest, Zakka's work had garnered him a negative reputation among Lebanese activists. In one blog post someone mocked Zakka for his NGO profit-making, which reportedly allowed him to purchase a $3 million house in Washington D.C. A source that wished to remain anonymous documented Zakka's involvement in the bribery and funding of the corrupt Nicolas Fattouch coalition during the 2009 Lebanese election. In September of 2015, while visiting Iran for a state-sponsored conference for which he received an official invitation, Zakka went missing. Two months later, Iranian state television announced that the Lebanese citizen was in police custody for his “deep ties to the U.S. intelligence and military establishment.” Photos of Zakka in a military-style uniform were then widely circulated within Iranian media, helping to paint a narrative of Zakka as a U.S. spy. Zakka's American prep school, Riverside military academy, later stated those photos were taken of him during the school's homecoming event. The name “Riverside” is visible on the left breast pocket of the uniform. Before the television broadcasts however, Kayhan newspaper, Iran's foremost hardline-conservative newspaper that is closely affiliated with the office of the Supreme Leader, published a would-be exposé entitled “Cyber Management Project Has a Footprint of Intrusion.” The article, published without attribution, asserted that Zakka's ties with U.S. government agencies were part of a foreign conspiracy for the Western domination of Iran.