A Taxi Driver, a Barista, a Farmer: The Iranians Jailed as ‘Israeli Spies’

iranwire – Babak Pichgah was distributing bread when police stopped him at a checkpoint, searched his phone, and found a single sarcastic comment he had posted on social media.

The 52-year-old glass factory worker had written beneath an Israeli government tweet in Persian that a local factory owed him money, and jokingly suggested that Israel should bomb it too.

That comment would cost him more than five years of his life.

Pichgah is one of at least 65 citizens, mostly from Iran’s Gilan province, who were arrested during and after a 12-day war between Israel and Iran, according to documents obtained by IranWire.

Most face charges of “intelligence cooperation with Israel” or “cooperation with hostile states,” accusations that legal experts say are being weaponized to silence dissent.

The arrests reveal extensive surveillance and prosecution of ordinary citizens whose only “crimes” were private family conversations, social media comments, or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Many were sentenced to years in prison. Others remain in legal limbo, waiting for verdicts as their lives and livelihoods unravel.

“Babak was truly convicted innocently,” a source familiar with his case told IranWire. “He accepted the verdict, and one-third was reduced. Now he has to serve three years.”

The crackdown intensified as tensions escalated between Israel and Iran.

Security forces set up checkpoints across Rasht and other cities in Gilan province, stopping citizens and demanding access to their phones.

What they found in private messages, social media activity, and browsing history became the basis for espionage charges that carry sentences ranging from months to years in prison, and under new legislation passed after the conflict, could even result in execution.

Most of those arrested were ordinary and vulnerable citizens with no political ties, according to IranWire sources. They were held in non-political wards of Lakan Prison in Rasht.

The Rasht Revolutionary Court sentenced Pichgah to five years, six months, and one day for “intelligence cooperation in favor of the Zionist regime,” and an additional seven months for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic.”

Court documents reviewed by IranWire list “police authority and IRGC intelligence” as the plaintiff.

Pichgah had already suffered for his work. Several fingers on his left hand had been severed in workplace accidents, leaving him partially disabled and reliant on disability insurance. He supplemented his income by working at the bakery where he was arrested.

His social media profile showed a simple life – photos of himself at the bread shop, with no indication of political activism or espionage.

In another case, a young taxi driver, whose name IranWire is withholding for his protection, learned that even preparing for emergencies during wartime could be considered suspicious.

As conflict loomed, he gathered a first-aid kit with burn ointment and other emergency supplies.

Many Iranian media outlets had advised citizens to prepare emergency bags with medical supplies, water, and non-perishable food in case of a bombing.

But when he went to a hospital to buy burn ointment and ask how to use it, security personnel grew suspicious.

Why would he need burn treatment unless someone in his home was already injured?

They searched his phone and found private family conversations criticizing Iran’s government and complaining about economic hardship.

“The poor guy had talked about economic and social pressures in his private chats,” a source told IranWire. “Police intelligence arrested him, and those chats became court evidence.”

During interrogation, authorities subjected him to severe psychological torture, trying to force a confession that he was an Israeli spy.

He spent four months in prison before being sentenced to one year. With time served and sentence reductions, he was eventually released.

“He is the breadwinner of his family and was in prison for four months for no reason,” the source said.

Meanwhile, at least two citizens who support restoring the monarchy were arrested for their social media activity and possession of symbols associated with Iran’s former royal family.

One, a young man from Isfahan living in Rasht, was targeted because he was active on Instagram “promoting monarchist views.”

Police subjected him to severe psychological torture, at one point falsely telling him his mother had been in a car accident to break his morale.

He spent an extended period in solitary confinement without family contact. His charges include “insulting the Supreme Leader” and “intelligence communication with the Zionist regime.”

Interrogators also focused on a seemingly mundane discovery in his home: nails and flags bearing the lion and sun symbol, the emblem of Iran’s pre-revolutionary flag, still used by monarchists.

“They put a lot of pressure on him about those nails and lion and sun flags,” a source said. Authorities also charged him with acting against national security. He was released on bail while awaiting trial.

Another monarchist supporter, a farmer in his 40s, was arrested during the conflict after previously being warned to delete his social media accounts. This time, authorities arrested him for posts about the Pahlavi family, Iran’s former rulers.

“He is the breadwinner of a family,” a source said. “Now he is waiting for the verdict on bail and has completely abandoned social media.”

For another citizen, who works in sports equipment and mountaineering gear, having a brother in Finland was enough to trigger an espionage investigation.

He had previously traveled to Finland to visit his brother. During interrogation, authorities insisted this alone made both men Israeli spies, despite no evidence of intelligence activity.

“They said, ‘Your brother is in Finland, he must be a spy, and you are in contact with him, so you are also a spy,’” a source familiar with the case said.

Described as kind-hearted and apolitical, he spent two miserable months in Meysaq ward of Lakan Prison before being released, enduring what sources called “very bad days.” 

“They took him out of work and life for two months,” the source said. “Fortunately, they finally released him.”

Another man from Talesh, who had previously attempted to migrate illegally to Germany and been deported, was arrested and accused of burning Basij militia banners. Sources say he had no political ideology – he was simply a fisherman frustrated by Iran’s economic conditions.

“He had no political thinking and was just a protester,” a source said. “He was truly helpless.”

Mohammad Hossein Heydari was arrested simply for wearing his backpack backwards, with the straps across his chest instead of on his back.

This apparently “suspicious” behavior during the conflict led police to stop and search him.

Under brutal interrogation, he confessed to various incidents around Rasht during the war – confessions later disproven when Ministry of Intelligence officials checked his location data.

“They had beaten him so much that he confessed to anything that had happened in Rasht during those days,” a source told IranWire.

Unable to walk back the false confessions, authorities found another justification: Heydari’s phone records showed that in 2022, he had been friends with a woman who now lives in Germany.

He was convicted and sent to Shafa psychiatric hospital for 29 days before being released with a legal ruling of “incapacity,” a designation typically reserved for children or people with severe mental disabilities.

“They took him out of life for four or five months for nothing,” the source said.

Religious minorities faced particular scrutiny during the crackdown.

A Christian convert who owns a popular coffee shop in Rasht was arrested and charged with promoting Christianity, though sources say he never proselytized.

“He is a very calm and dignified person, and many people respect him,” a source said. “Just because he is a popular figure, they arrested him to scare others.”

Security forces confiscated about 2 billion tomans ($17,500) worth of coffee from his shop, essentially his life savings, claiming it was smuggled.

The apparent aim was to destroy his business as a warning to other converts. “They tried to destroy his business, just to scare others,” the source said.

Reports of arrests of Christian converts and Baha’is increased during and after the conflict. Pressure on Jewish institutions also intensified.

These arrests follow a broader pattern of targeting ordinary citizens.

IranWire documented cases of 70 citizens, mostly Arab, imprisoned in Sheiban Prison in Ahvaz under similar circumstances.

Pejman Yousefi received more than eight years in prison simply for posting a social media story critical of the war.

Legal experts say charges of “cooperation with hostile states” are being used primarily to suppress dissent rather than address genuine security threats.

The situation worsened after the conflict when Iran’s parliament passed the “Law on Intensifying Punishment for Spies and Those Cooperating with Israel and Hostile Governments.”

The legislation makes any “intelligence and espionage activity and operational action” for “hostile governments and groups” punishable by execution and property confiscation.

The law also criminalizes media activity, including sending photos and videos to foreign outlets.

The United States and Israel are automatically classified as “hostile states,” while the Supreme National Security Council determines others.

Fifty-seven legal experts signed an open letter calling the law unconstitutional and “a big disaster.”

Critics say it effectively authorizes security agencies to suppress, arrest, and prosecute citizens with minimal oversight.