[IranAlert] Regime Arrests Striking Truckers, Accuses Them of ‘Crimes’ Punishable by Death

This is the NUFDI IranAlert—concise, timely analysis offering unique insights into breaking news and major developments inside Iran. Each short brief provides a fresh angle, highlighting trends, reactions, and overlooked internal dynamics shaping Iran and the Islamic Republic.

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With the truckers’ strike entering its second week, the Islamic Republic has launched a two-pronged response: minor concessions and major threats of harsh punishment. The regime is attempting to feign compromise with the drivers by promising to address their demands, mostly revolving around better working conditions, higher freight rates, as well as relief from fuel restrictions and high insurance costs. At the same time, security forces have been arresting prominent truckers, such as influencer Shahab Darabi, and accusing them of crimes that can carry the death penalty.

Arrest in Khuzestan Province 

The regime-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) on May 28 reported that the security forces have arrested two unnamed men in relation to the strikes, accusing them of charges punishable by death.  The IRIB said that the two men were arrested for “disrupting the security of roads and truck drivers.”  It also accused them of “blocking roads and stopping vehicles, using cold (melee) weapons while threatening and assaulting drivers, and simultaneously recording their actions to make the roads appear unsafe and to disrupt the transportation of goods.” The report’s wording is alarming, as the Islamic Republic’s penal code potentially deems the act of blocking roads or inflicting harm upon drivers through the use of weapons and threats to life as “Moharebeh,” or waging war against God.  Pursuant to Article 279 of the 2016 iteration of the Islamic Penal Code, Moharebeh is defined as “drawing a weapon with the intent to threaten the life, property, or honor of individuals, or to intimidate them in a manner that generates insecurity within the community.”  Furthermore, Article 281 of the same statute provides that “robbers, thieves, and smugglers who take up arms and cause the deprivation of public security are considered Moharib [enemies of God].” An earlier version of the Islamic Penal Code, enacted in 1991, explicitly included the crime of “blocking roads” as Moharebeh. Although this version is no longer in force, its broad interpretative legacy regarding Moharebeh persists within Islamic Republic jurisprudence.  The Islamic Republic regularly uses these charges, along with “Mofsed-e-filarz” (corruption on Earth) and “Baghi” (rebellion) to execute protesters.

More Arrests in Khuzestan

The Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC-IO) on May 29 announced that it arrested “multiple individuals for recording footage of truck drivers’ strikes and protests and sending them to enemy outlets to create propaganda against the country.”  In a statement carried by the IRGC-linked Tasnim News Agency, the IRGC-IO said the arrests were made at the Imam Khomeini Port, located in the southern Khuzestan Province.  The statement added that the individuals had been handed over to judicial authorities for legal proceedings.  At the same time, state broadcaster IRIB published the forced “confessions” of the individuals. In the video, two men can be seen in prison clothes with their faces blurred, saying they were “duped” by foreign-based media, expressing “remorse,” and warning other drivers against participation in the protests and strikes.

Arrest in Gilan Province

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence agents in the northern Gilan Province arrested a man sending videos of the ongoing truck drivers’ strike to the diaspora TV channel Manoto. In a statement published by state media, the IRGC said that the person had recorded footage of a freight terminal in the city of Rasht “during off-hours” and sent the footage to the network to create the “false impression” that the terminal was shut down to “disrupt transport of essential goods.” The IRGC accused the individual of “establishing an illegal group… acting on behalf of groups opposing the holy Islamic Republic… and disrupting order and security in road transportation and interfering with the movement of essential goods.” Article 500 of the Islamic Penal Code criminalizes “propaganda against the Islamic Republic in support of opposition groups,” punishable with up to one year of imprisonment. Article 610 of the code says, “When two or more individuals collude and conspire to commit crimes against the national or foreign security of the country or prepare the facilities to commit the aforementioned crimes, unless they are regarded as mohareb, shall be sentenced to two to five years imprisonment.” The regime regularly uses these charges to imprison dissidents.