Word: savak
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Among them were 700 who have been arrested since Nov. 6, when the military took over the country. Contrary to earlier government pledges, the fact finders said, prisoners were still subjected to psychological torture by SAVAK, Iran's secret police (though physical torture had apparently stopped...
Since he announced his liberalization measures, which are designed to culminate in free elections next June, the Shah and Premier Sharif-Emami have lifted restrictions on the formation of new political parties, curbed the activities of SAVAK, Iran's notorious secret police, and cracked down on widespread corruption among profiteering businessmen and former government officials. General Nematullah Nasiri, who was head of SAVAK for 13 years before he was fired last June, has now been brought back from his post as Ambassador to Pakistan reportedly to face charges of corruption and murder. The government will also press charges against...
...practices as hanging women prisoners naked from the ceiling and burning them with cigarettes. So shocking were the disclosures that newly appointed Justice Minister Hussein Najafi immediately promised the release of Iran's remaining political prisoners, believed to number about 1,000. In addition, 34 top officials of SAVAK were dismissed...
...articulate, they have formed a vocal vanguard against the Shah in almost every major city in the world, airing their opposition with slogans in the London subway or demonstrations in Los Angeles, Washington or New York City. Many wear masks when they demonstrate for fear that agents of SAVAK, the heavyhanded Iranian secret police, or authorities in other countries will gather incriminating data on them. Under the Iranian constitution, castigating the Shah, even abroad, is a crime punishable by three to ten years in prison...
...hopeful sign that in recent months the Shah has begun to make visible reforms in the political and human rights affairs of the nation. He fired the head of SAVAK, who had been identified with that agency's most notorious terror tactics, freed a number of prisoners, and promised to allow dissidents to be tried in civilian rather than military courts. But some specialists in the region blame those small liberalizing measures for the present turmoil. Says one: "Many Iranians took these changes as a sign that the Shah was weakening and responded with almost total cynicism...