Ruhollah Zam was paraded on Iranian state TV admitting to “counter-revolutionary” activity in France, where he lived for 12 years

A female agent working for Iranian intelligence is believed to have helped entrap and lure home an influential opponent of the regime who was living in Paris.

Ruhollah Zam, 46, a prominent activist who ran Amadnews, a French-based anti-regime online forum, was presented on Iranian television on Monday confessing to “counter-revolutionary” activity under the orders of France.

The operation to repatriate him is claimed to have had at least tacit approval from the French security services, as part of the exchange deal for the freedom of two French academics held by Tehran.

Fariba Adelkhah is being held in Tehran THOMAS ARRIVE/GETTY

The elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG) boasted that he had been lured back in a “sophisticated and professional operation” involving a ruse which fooled western spy agencies. It appears that he was first