His daughter, Pardis Sabeti, shared photos of her father attending in the rally on Twitter, and expressed hope that after some 44 years of darkness, this year will bring light to the Iranians. For those who don’t know Parviz Sabeti, a short introduction would be necessary.
Sabeti was the emblem of the SAVAK organization and a key component of Pahlavi regime's dictatorial practices. In fact, any mention of security officers in pre-revolutionary media stories and articles was a direct reference to Parviz Sabeti.
Who is Parviz Sabeti?
Parviz Sabeti was head of SAVAK’s Tehran office and later became the organization’s director of internal security. In 1975, when he reached that position, repressions by SAVAK were at their highest. He was the one who pulled the strings. His intelligence reports determined the arrest, imprisonment and the execution of a majority of individuals who fought Shah's dictatorship. In fact, the hideous image of SAVAK as a symbol of state-sponsored repression was a result of operations by the organization’s Internal security department. That department had managed to cast its shadow over everyone in Iran for many years.
Public hostility against SAVAK went beyond the Iranian borders. In 1975, chairman of Amnesty International said, “The Pahlavi dictatorship has one of the worse human rights records in the world.”
Judicial pursuit of Parviz Sabeti’s case
After Sabeti’s reappearance in public at a rally in Los Angeles, the Islamic Republic of Iran has requested the trial or extradition of all Pahlavi-era criminals, including the senior SAVAK executive Sabeti.
Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi has said about the judicial pursuit of the case that Iran will continue to seek justice on all individuals who had a role in the Pahlavi regime's repression apparatus.
Vahidi said that the judicial pursuit of the case will not be limited to torturers of SAVAK, but it will also include all individuals who had a role in plundering Iran’s financial resources during the Pahlavi era. “From where has the money come for Pahlavi family's lavish spending? Theft of private property is an issue that must be addressed," he said.
The minister said, however, that Western governments have created a safe haven for those individuals despite the fact that they are not high in numbers.
"Sadly, this situation reflects the same lies and deceptions that they have preached before; on the one hand, they provide safe haven to terrorists and on the other, they pretend to support human rights,” said Vahidi.
In a press conference, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said that the extradition of Parviz Sabeti is one of the items on an Iranian long list of demands from the US government that is related to 44 years of US hostility toward the Iranian government and nation.
In addition to Islamic Republic officials, popular opinion has also reacted to the reappearance of Sabeti. Many Farsi-language Twitter users have asked for the prosecution or extradition of this SAVAK agent.
In a report about forms of torture used by SAVAK published in Washington Post on November 26, 1976, Amnesty International says:
“The suppression of political opponents is the responsibility of SAVAK - Iran's secret police - which is carried out with extreme cruelty... with continuous torture sometimes it leads to death and also violates the Declaration of Human Rights, with summary executions... SAVAK tortures political suspects with techniques such as whipping, electric shocks, pulling fingernails and toenails, and rape...”
Wayne Madsen, journalist, columnist, and American intelligence expert, has carried out extensive research about torture. The journalist has also investigated the life and fate of Parviz Sabeti.
Madsen notes in parts of his report that Parviz Sabeti was the chief torturer under the Iranian Shah. He now lives in Orlando as a triple Iranian-Israeli-US citizen. Sabeti is much worse than any low-level Nazi concentration camp guard ever deported from the United States. So, why is Sabeti still in the United States and not in Iran to stand trial for crimes against humanity?
Many people in the US, like Wayne Madsen, want Parviz Sabeti to stand trial or be expelled from country. For example, on February 26, 2012, a group of 198 political prisoners of the Shah’s regime who lived abroad wrote a letter about SAVAK and Sabeti's crimes and asked for his trial in international courts according to human rights laws. However, nothing has been done yet.
Now, it has become clear that Western governments, including the US, which see themselves as champions and leaders of human rights in the world, are aware of the crimes of SAVAK and especially the role Sabeti has played in those crimes. The question is would the US be ready to act on this? When it comes to Sabeti's human rights violations, will they bring charges against him? Or, will he be extradited to Iran, where he can stand trial for his crimes in his own country?
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