ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Amnesty International on Thursday said they welcome the landmark ruling by a US federal court in Florida allowing the advancement of a lawsuit filed by three Iranian torture survivors against Parviz Sabeti, a former senior official in Iran’s intelligence agency during the Shah era.
The statement came a day after a Florida court ruled that a case filed by three Iranian torture survivors against Sabeti - an alleged former senior SAVAK official - “can move forward to [the] merits phase.” The “US federal court found the deadline to file their complaint was extended because their fear of reprisal was legitimate and ongoing,” the San Francisco-based Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) reported on Wednesday.
“This ruling offers hope to torture survivors in Iran under both the Shah & the Islamic Republic and sends a powerful message that decades of repression & fear cannot stand in the way of justice & that courts can still ensure that accountability for victims remains w/in reach,” read Amnesty’s statement on X.
By rejecting the defendant’s argument in the November ruling that the claim was filed too late, “the court acknowledged the broader context of a continuous crisis of repression and impunity in Iran, which has left victims of torture under both the Shah and the Islamic Republic without access to justice,” Amnesty said.
The lawsuit was filed under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) by three Iranian torture survivors in February 2025, who are proceeding under “John Doe” pseudonyms to protect their safety, according to the CJA, who represents and seeks redress for survivors from around the world of torture, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in US and Spanish courts.
The plaintiffs allege that during the 1970s, they were detained and tortured under a system of political repression designed, authorized, and overseen by Sabeti from 1973 to 1978 in his capacity as Deputy Director of SAVAK.
An earlier October ruling denied requests from Sabeti, who himself has lived under assumed names, to strip the plaintiffs of their right to proceed under pseudonyms and rejected his arguments stating that the claims were barred by the statute of limitations within the ten-year time frame in the Torture Victim Protection Act on grounds of having “feared for their safety” and that Sabeti had hid his location and whereabouts until 2023.
“Considering that Iran has never engaged in a democratic reckoning of crimes [the] Defendant is accused of… Plaintiff’s fear of reprisal from a myriad of dangers – coupled with [the] Defendant’s concealment – clearly establish the extraordinary circumstances required to support equitable tolling,” the Florida US district court said in Doe I versus Sabeti on October 6.
The court cited substantial evidence that SAVAK was repurposed by the Islamic Republic into SAVAMA, the Islamic Republic's intelligence structures, forming “a continuous chain of repression” with “a similar structure and some of the same staff,” read the CJA briefing on Thursday.
The ruling described a notorious detention and interrogation facilities known as Komiteh Moshtarak as having a notorious reputation as “a den of torture and brutality.” The court ruling stated that “activists, intellectuals, artists, and other dissidents were imprisoned, abused, and tortured by SAVAK and the [Joint Anti-Sabotage] Committee during the early 1970s,” and that there was “no way to challenge SAVAK torture in the Shah’s courts,” read the briefing.
The court further ruled that “the plaintiffs’ fear of reprisal was legitimate, and it continues today" and found that "the plaintiffs have had good reason to fear for their safety from the Islamic Republic, which has a record of targeting critics abroad; from Sabeti himself; and from Sabeti’s supporters and other hostile elements within the diaspora,” the briefing stated.
The case is set to move to the “mertis” stage where both sides collect and share evidence about the plaintiffs’ allegations of torture and to prepare for trial. The plaintiffs will need to prove their claims, and Sabeti will have the chance to respond.
Amnesty has long documented the systemic use of torture under the Shah and the ‘drastic’ deterioration of human rights after the 1979 Revolution.
A 1976 Amnesty report details the systemic use of torture, arbitrary detention, and lack of due process against political dissidents, including members of Iran's Kurdish minority, carried out by SAVAK.
Amnesty International also published a landmark global report in 1984 titled Torture in the Eighties, exposing systemic state-sponsored torture across dozens of countries.
