Judge rejects bid to dismiss torture lawsuit against alleged Savak official

Three California plaintiffs allege rape, electric shocks and a device called Apollo

A federal judge in Florida has rejected a bid by Parviz Sabeti, accused of leading Iran’s Savak intelligence agency under the deposed Shah, to dismiss a civil lawsuit brought by three former political prisoners, allowing the case to advance toward discovery.

In a sealed order Tuesday, US District Judge Gregory A. Presnell turned aside Sabeti’s argument that the statute of limitations should bar the lawsuit, denying his motion for summary judgment. In August 2025, Presnell had already rejected a separate motion to dismiss the case outright and ordered both sides to conduct discovery on whether the Torture Victim Protection Act claim was time-barred.

Sabeti could now be required to answer the civil claims as early as next year. The plaintiffs say they were among thousands of people rounded up as perceived opponents of the Shah by Savak, Iran’s internal security and intelligence agency, and subjected to abuses at Sabeti’s personal direction.

Among the specific allegations: captors used rape, electric shocks, near-drownings and forced nail extraction. According to the complaint, interrogators used a torture device nicknamed Apollo — an electric chair named after the early US space program — equipped with a metal helmet that amplified victims’ screams into their own ears. The plaintiffs say they were abducted by Savak in Tehran, beaten into giving false confessions and served prison time.

The complaint alleges that Sabeti “has spent the last four decades out of the public eye, concealing his whereabouts and identity.” The plaintiffs say they discovered his location only after his daughter posted a photograph of him at a 2023 protest against the Iranian government on social media.

Sabeti’s defense team disputes that he was difficult to find before 2023, filing dozens of documents they say prove he lived openly in Florida under his real name. The records include property documents, media articles and a photograph of Sabeti with former President George H.W. Bush and his son Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, court filings show.

In May, the plaintiffs’ attorneys filed a response of their own, presenting dozens of documents and articles to argue that extraordinary circumstances warranted extending the deadline. Their filings cited a 2025 Guardian story chronicling Sabeti’s departure from Iran and his low-profile new life in Florida, as well as a 1978 secret CIA analysis that identified Sabeti as a fiercely loyal ally of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The CIA document was not declassified until 2018.

According to the complaint, Sabeti was “widely recognized as one of the most powerful and feared men in the shah’s regime … with the authority to apprehend, interrogate and prosecute opponents throughout the country.”

Sabeti has previously insisted he was not personally involved in the detention, torture or execution of prisoners, and has claimed he “always opposed torture.” In an interview with the Persian channel Manoto cited in a 2023 report by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, a dissident group, Sabeti characterized his government employment as clerical work.

Court papers list seven attorneys representing Sabeti. None replied to The Guardian’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Claret Vargas, senior staff attorney at the Center for Justice and Accountability, an advocacy group representing the plaintiffs, welcomed the ruling. “I’m very glad that our clients will be able to pursue justice after all these years, and everybody deserves justice for torture regardless of who was in charge, or the regime that tortured them,” Vargas said. “Perpetrators of torture should not escape accountability simply because the survivors were forced to live with fear for decades.”

“We don’t yet know the specific legal basis for the court’s decision, but it’s a really important milestone for our clients to be able to bring forth this case and really address [their allegations],” Vargas added. The court previously dismissed state law claims in the case.

The lawsuit unfolds against the backdrop of what the Guardian describes as Donald Trump’s war in Iran, which has brought new scrutiny of the resilience of the country’s hardline Islamic regime and renewed activity among Iranian opposition figures. Reza Pahlavi, the former Shah’s son now based in Washington, has positioned himself as a potential new leader if the current regime falls, though questions remain about his level of popular support. In June, Pahlavi, 65, distanced himself from far-right supporters who flew banners and wore shirts bearing the Savak emblem at rallies.

According to the Associated Press, Masood Masjoody, an Iranian activist who criticized the US-led war and the campaign to install Pahlavi as Iran’s next leader, was killed in Canada earlier this year after disappearing in February. A threatening post in Farsi directed at other activists appeared on X from a since-deleted account named for Savak, the AP reported.