Friday, March 21, 2025
Three dissidents now living in the US are suing the Shah’s “chief torturer” – Parviz Sabeti, who has lived for decades in Florida as a real estate developer – over years of abuse they say continues to haunt them to this day. Sabeti, according to a $225 million lawsuit reported on by The Independent of Great Britain, “is widely recognized as an architect of the institutionalization of torture in Iran, including the use of forced public recantations obtained through torture, a practice developed under his tenure and rapidly expanded and employed by the Islamic Republic of Iran today.” The complaint, filed February 10 in Orlando federal court, alleges Sabeti, one of the “most powerful and feared men” in the Shah’s regime, maintains ongoing relationships with individuals linked to the Pasdaran. Sabeti was identified as second-in-command of Iran’s secret police, or SAVAK.
A source with knowledge of the case told The Independent, “SAVAK was never abolished; it was actually co-opted by the Islamic Republic.” SAVAK was abolished, but an unknown number of its operatives were rehired by the revolutionary regime. Sabeti’s accusers, who are identified in court filings as John Does I, II, and III, claim the 88- year-old “planned, supervised, and advocated” for their arrests and subsequent torture, during which they were allegedly subjected to electric shocks, hung from the ceiling by their wrists, had weights hung from their genitals, whipped, beaten and forced to endure the “Apollo,” a device described in the complaint as “an electric chair with a metal mask designed to amplify the screams of the victims in their own ears.” “I have lived in fear of the Islamic Republic for the last four decades,” John Doe I, a 72-year old California resident, wrote in an affidavit filed alongside the complaint. He says he has been the target of surveillance by Islamic Republic agents, both online and in real life, that his child has been harassed on the street by regime supporters, and that the Iranian government has pressured his family members to divulge details of his current whereabouts.
In a separate affidavit, John Doe II, an 85-year-old also living in California, said he is “afraid of the Islamic Republic and its ability to silence dissidents no matter where they are in the world,” and that he believes Sabeti “would be willing and able to harm me and my family for my participation in this lawsuit.” For his part, John Doe III, a 68-year-old Californian, maintains in his affidavit that he “do[es] not believe that residing in the United States protects me from harm by agents acting on behalf of the Iranian government.”
The complaint paints Sabeti as a menacing figure who served as deputy director of SAVAK under Mohammad Reza Shah. Sabeti and his wife fled Iran in 1978, taking “active measures” to conceal their whereabouts, the complaint says. He has spent the past four decades in hiding, finally revealing himself in 2023 against the backdrop of mass demonstrations in Iran, producing a 7-1/2-hour documentary “defending his tenure” as one of the Shah’s most violent henchmen, according to the complaint.
He went by various names, including Peter Sabeti, in an effort to maintain a low pro[1]file. However, it has been known for decades that he was living in Florida. His daughter, Pardis, is a Harvard University professor who was named in 2014 by Time magazine among its Persons of The Year for her accomplishments in health research.
Some stories about her identified her father. Sabeti has denied that he had any role in torture. In a 2023 interview with the opposition TV channel Manoto, he said, “I wasn’t involved in investigations and prisons. I was only doing office jobs. The only operation I was involved in was the [Teymour] Bakhtiar operation.
And that was an external issue, not an internal one.” That was a reference to the 1970 assassination of Bakhtiar, the founder of SAVAK, who fell out with the Shah. John Doe I was a student at Tabriz University when he was arrested in his dorm room by SAVAK in 1974, according to the complaint.
Court filings say he was tortured for weeks amid accusations that he had provided a classmate with a book of illicit political poetry, and that his brutal treatment was “coordinated” and “approved” by Sabeti. After 40 days of violent interrogations, John Doe I was brought before a military tribunal on charges of acting against national security, and sentenced to four years in prison, the complaint states. “He has suffered from kidney issues throughout his life as a result of the wounds and infections that he suffered while in prison,” it goes on. “John Doe I still has the scars from being whipped and lashed. He has hidden these scars, and many of the details of what happened to him, from people throughout [his] life.” John Doe II, an artist, was a member of an arts collective forcibly shut down by SAVAK during the 1970s, according to the complaint. He was arrested and imprisoned multiple times for, among other things, supporting free speech in Iran, and, following a show trial in a military court, served seven years of a 12- year sentence during which he was tortured “repeatedly” on Sabeti’s orders, the complaint alleges. “John Doe II’s torture has left a deep and heavy psychological burden on him, where every day is its own struggle,” it says. continued from page four “To help deal with the lasting effects of his torture, John Doe II has had years of therapy. Even thinking about his torture is a visceral and painful process for him. At times, John Doe II has posttraumatic stress reactions when he tries to talk about his torture, including full body shakes and feelings of dizziness.” John Doe III was still in high school when he was arrested by SAVAK on allegations of sharing anti-Shah literature, and tortured at a facility in his hometown of Shiraz, according to the complaint. After his name was given up by a classmate caught with a homemade gun used to shoot birds, John Doe III was charged with participating in an armed group and sentenced to two years in prison, the complaint states. There, it says he was subjected to gruesome forms of torture, all allegedly authorized and overseen by Sabeti, that still affect him. “Recounting and reliving his torture is difficult for John Doe III; it can feel dishonorable and humiliating,” according to the complaint. “His trauma has left a heavy burden on him for his entire life, although he has tried his best to cope.” Now that Sabeti has revealed himself, John Does I, II and III can pursue their claims against him, the complaint states. And while they fear reprisal by members of both the current Iranian regime and supporters of the Shah, the complaint says the Does “feel they can no longer wait” until such threats have been eliminated. The trio is demanding compensatory and punitive damages of at least $75 million each, for a total of $225 million, plus attorneys’ fees. Once served with the lawsuit, Sabeti will have three weeks to respond to the accusations.
