Eslamabad-e Gharb; Shahab Darabi, a protesting truck driver, sentenced to 3 years and 1 day in prison based on reports by security agencies
On August 25, 2025, Shahab Darabi, a well-known blogger known as “Yuz Asia,” a protesting truck driver and one of the participants in the truck drivers' strike in early June of this year, was sentenced to 3 years and 1 day of discretionary imprisonment on charges of “insulting sanctities” and “spreading lies with the intention of disturbing public opinion.”
Mr. Darabi, by publishing a video on his Instagram page, announced that based on a verdict dated August 20, 2025, by Branch 102 of the Criminal Court Two of Eslamabad-e Gharb (formerly Branch 102 of Criminal Court), presided over by “Seyed Ali Hatamzadeh,” and with reference to Articles 513 and 698 of the Islamic Penal Code, he has been sentenced to 2 years of discretionary imprisonment for the charge of “spreading lies with the intention of disturbing public opinion” and to 3 years and 1 day of discretionary imprisonment for the charge of “insulting sanctities.” With the application of clauses (b and th) of Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code, the severest sentence (3 years and 1 day) is enforceable.
According to the text of Shahab Darabi’s verdict, this ruling was issued based on the indictment file from the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office of Eslamabad-e Gharb, which was formed on July 21, 2025. Furthermore, the basis of the charges brought against this protesting truck driver is based on reports from the Intelligence Organization of the IRGC in Kermanshah Province and the Intelligence Office of Eslamabad-e Gharb County. Accordingly, the court has claimed that Mr. Darabi, through his Instagram pages, in addition to publishing calls for nationwide truck driver strikes and inviting them to acts of violence and tension against drivers who did not participate in the strike, published videos and images that disturbed public opinion and insulted religious shrines.
This verdict is appealable within 20 days from the date of notification in the same branch, and after that, within another 20 days in the Provincial Court of Appeals.
On Tuesday, June 4, 2025, Shahab Darabi, due to joining the truckers' strike and supporting the strikes on his Instagram page, was arrested by security forces raiding his house and taken to an unknown location. In other videos published online of Shahab Darabi’s violent arrest, armed plainclothes security forces carrying Kalashnikovs are seen arresting him.
Following Shahab Darabi’s violent arrest, videos of his mother’s cries and appeals were published in which she says: “People, help us, unknown individuals stormed our home, ransacked our belongings, and arrested my son.”
On Monday, June 10, 2025, Shahab Darabi was temporarily released after a week of arbitrary detention.
Shahab Darabi, son of Rahmat, is 49 years old and a native of Eslamabad-e Gharb. He is a blogger and owns an Instagram page called “Yuz Asia.” Before his arrest, he had two Instagram pages which were first taken offline and then he was arrested by security forces. After his release, he started a new Instagram page.
Shahab Darabi and previous arrest in 2024:
Shahab Darabi was also previously arrested on February 28, 2024, after publishing a post opposing the elections on social media, without a court order, by security forces. At that time too, his Instagram page went offline after his arrest.
Nationwide truck drivers’ strike:
On May 13, 2025, the Union of Truck Drivers and Freight Carriers of Iran issued a call for a nationwide strike starting on June 1, 2025.
The strike began on Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Bandar Abbas.
The truck drivers’ strike spread quickly across the country in its early days. On the third day of the strike (June 3, 2025), the strike had spread to at least 72 cities. On the seventh day, it had reached over 130 cities. On the eighth day, it continued in at least 140 cities in 30 provinces. On the tenth day, the strike expanded to 152 cities, and on the eleventh day, it reached 155 cities across all 31 provinces.
This strike, in terms of scale and speed of expansion, is considered one of the largest labor protests in recent years in Iran. Bandar Abbas was the starting point and base of the protest, and cities such as Kermanshah, Eslamabad-e Gharb, Isfahan, Tabriz, Shiraz, Arak, Mashhad, Yazd, Tehran, and other provincial centers were among the prominent cities in spreading the strike.
Discrimination, corruption, inequality, and lack of attention to inflation and severe fuel quota increases, social security insurance issues, unfair freight distribution, as well as protests against trucking commissions and the disastrous condition of roads were among the reasons for the nationwide truck drivers’ strike.
