Terrorism & Electricity Industry : Relying on the Legislative Criminal Policy of Iran, & US Government Actions against Electricity Terrorism

Power plants, electricity transmission and distribution networks could be severely damaged by a small number of well-informed attackers. With this degree of importance, electricity is highly appealing to terrorists and thus it is often the target of terrorism operations. Sabotaging these facilities, which disturbs the provision of people's basic needs, could pose a serious threat to the national security of the country. Sabotage is different from ordinary vandalism as the former aims at confronting the government. When the destruction of public properties is done to create public disorder and cause terror, the crime becomes terrorism. As a preventative measure against terror caused by hostile destruction of public facilities, these facilities must be protected through appropriate legislation and actions.  One of the most effective methods of protecting these facilities is to define and enact penal laws and punishments for destroying electricity infrastructure facilities. As a result of an analysis of current legal articles in this area, the legislator's protection of electricity has been trivialized in some articles. In other articles, the legislator has classified this offense as Mohareb and as an act of terror with a heavy penalty imposed on the offender. If the offense of sabotage is considered Mohareb, it will be tried in a separate court through different procedures.

Keywords:

rules , sabotage , public facilities , Punishment