Parviz Sabeti

Born in Sangesar, Semnan province, in north-central Iran, to a Bahá'í family, Sabeti received a law degree from the University of Tehran and joined the SAVAK, Iran's intelligence agency in Shah's regime, in 1957, and quickly rose to become the acting director of the SAVAK’s so-called third division—its political directorate—and later its director.

During his tenure SAVAK became infamous for crushing dissent and systematically using torture. He has been called one of the most powerful men in the last two decades of Pahlavi regime. Historian Abbas Milani describes him as "like a character from a le Carre novel" and says that "As his fame and reputation grew, his name and face disappeared from the public domain."

Sabeti and his family fled Iran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and settled in the United States; Muhammad Sahimi writes that he moved to Florida.

Pardis Sabeti, a Harvard biology professor, is his daughter.