On the anniversary of Khomeini’s uprising in the winter of 1979, a group of regime loyalists abroad, many of them linked to Islamist or Marxist terrorist organizations, anonymously filed a lawsuit against Parviz Sabeti, a well-known former SAVAK official, through a real estate attorney.
From the outset, it was clear that this was not genuine legal action but a politically motivated, pre-orchestrated show. The complaint appeared less a legal petition and more a political vendetta against Iran’s monarchist movement, especially against Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the most credible and recognized figure of the opposition.
Erfan Fard, the author of Sabeti’s memoir and a prominent Middle East and security analyst, described the lawsuit in an interview with Iran International TV as “a government-orchestrated project meant to please Khamenei.”
Fard was detained by ICE despite being a legal resident
Weeks later, on March 28, 2025, Fard, who was living legally in the United States, paying taxes, and had a pending immigration case, was detained by ICE after traveling to Texas to lecture at a Dallas college. No clear reason was given for his arrest.
Today, his fate, or more accurately, his life or death, lies in the hands of the US Immigration Headquarters in Washington, DC.
Fard’s scholarly and media work in Arabic, English, and Persian has appeared widely in international outlets such as The Jerusalem Post, Israel National News, Alhurra, Al-Hadath, Asharq News, and Iran International. In numerous American and Israeli media appearances, he has written and spoken extensively against Islamic terrorism.
After six and a half months in detention, Fard initially resisted publicizing his case. But the same regime-linked networks abroad suddenly leaked the story on social media without his lawyer’s consent, attempting to exploit his ordeal for their political battles against the monarchist camp. Their aim was clear: to pressure US authorities into extraditing Erfan Qaneei Fard to Iran, where regime security agencies could force him to deliver fabricated confessions against Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, Empress Farah Pahlavi, or Parviz Sabeti.
For the remnants of the 1979 revolutionary factions, this would be their ultimate triumph, sacrificing a 50-year-old intellectual whose only weapon has ever been his pen. In recent weeks, pro-regime lobbyists abroad have mobilized to distort and obscure the facts of the case. Yet no one asks: why should a man who has lived and worked in the US since 2003 and has held political asylum since 2013 be sent to the same regime he fled from? What crime has he committed?
The Islamic Republic’s record of hostage-taking, abduction, torture, murder, and forced confessions is well known to every human rights organization. Fard’s extensive writings in The Jerusalem Post, Israel National News, Israel Hayom, The Hill, and The Dallas Morning News, as well as his interviews with Alhurra, Al-Hadath, Asharq, and Israel 24, all directly expose the terrorist nature of Tehran’s regime and its global influence operations.
Given this record, his possible fate in Iran is grimly predictable. Erfan Fard, who has spent more than three decades in research and intellectual work, has been banned from publication inside Iran since 2013, with none of his writings permitted for release there.
'A crime against humanity'
Yet, certain Marxist, Islamist, and separatist factions continue to exhume two-decade-old debates around his early books, trying in a delusional and baseless way to portray him as a regime affiliate while ignoring fifteen years of transparent and documented anti-regime work in international media. Such behavior is not only dishonest and unethical but a crime against humanity.
While Fard enjoys respect in Israeli and American media circles, Iran International TV was the only Persian-language outlet to immediately act with integrity and report on his case, a gesture that deserves recognition.
Among political groups, the Office of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the Constitutionalist Party of Iran (Liberal Democrats), and monarchist networks such as Pakan and Taj, along with several Israeli lobby organizations, are actively working to save his life regardless of whether he shares their political views.
By contrast, certain Iranian political circles, after Fox News reported on the planned deportation of a group of Iranians on September 30, cynically mocked and even hoped that a “new action film of televised confessions” would soon air, announcing that US authorities had handed him over to Tehran. This is their long-standing wish. Equally troubling is the silence of self-proclaimed Iranian human rights figures and activists, who now rub their hands in quiet satisfaction at the thought that a non-Islamist, non-1979-aligned critic might be eliminated.
Now, after eight and a half months in detention, the final decision rests with the US Immigration Headquarters: will Erfan Fard return to his normal life or not?
Naturally, the United States, a nation built on law, morality, and friendship with Israel, will never commit such a shameful mistake, nor offer such a gift to the security apparatus of the Islamic Republic.
Meanwhile, a group of patriotic and humanitarian individuals has written letters and gathered signatures urging US senators, such as Ted Cruz, to intervene on legal and humanitarian grounds.
On Monday, October 6, through his attorney Michael Payma, Iran International managed to speak with Fard at the Texas ICE detention center. He described his chaotic and unjust detention as “grotesque,” yet remained calm and composed, saying only:
“I am finishing the final edits of my book, Tehran’s Dictator.” It recalls the words of the Persian poet Hafez, who wrote: “This is the decree of heaven; whether you play or burn.”