Justice Sought in the Downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752

Family members who lost loved ones on Flight PS752 almost two years ago conducted their own probe into the aircraft's destruction. (Social media video via Reuters)

"Today's legal action reflects our unwavering commitment to achieving transparency, justice and accountability for the families of the victims."

"[Canada, the U.K., Sweden and Ukraine argue that Iran] failed to conduct an impartial, transparent, and fair criminal investigation and prosecution consistent with international law."

"[Iran withheld or destroyed evidence, blamed other countries and low level Revolutionary Guard personnel], threatened and harassed the families of the victims seeking justice [and failed to report details of the incident to the International Civil Aviation Organization."

Joint statement, Canada, United Kingdom, Sweden, Ukraine

A case was launched against Iran at the highest court of the United Nations over the 2020 downing of an Ukrainian passenger jet causing the death of all 176 passengers and crew. The four countries involved now urge the International Court of Justice to rule that Iran shot down the Ukraine International Airlines plane illegally, and to order an apology from Tehran in addition to paying compensation to the families of the victims, many of them Iranian-Canadians.

Travelling from Tehran to Kyiv on January 8, 2020, Flight PS752 was shot down soon after takeoff from Tehran's international airport. There had been flights earlier in the day and none had experienced anything out of the ordinary. Everything appeared to be in order, the airport functioning as normal even though Tehran itself was on guard, awaiting a potential strike from the United States. Yet the skies were not shut down as a temporary caution and matters proceeded as normal.

 

For that matter, Russia has never been called to account for its role in shooting down a Malaysian passenger jet in 2014 while it was flying over eastern Ukraine. Ethnic Russian Ukrainians supported by the Russian military in the Donbas in a conflict with Ukraine. The Dutch-led team of investigators reported in 2016 that a Buk surface-to-air missile launched from separatist-controlled east Ukraine       originated from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Federation, transported from Russia on the day of the crash, fired from a field in a rebel-controlled area and the launch system returned to Russia afterwards.

 

Tehran had denied responsibility for the mid-air explosion of the Ukraine Airlines flight for days, until indisputable evidence was presented forcing Iran to admit to having 'inadvertently' shot the plane down by two missiles, finally claiming its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard had thought the passenger jet was an incoming U.S. missile, though the directions were in complete opposition; the plane in flight away from Tehran, whereas a missile would be approaching Tehran from the opposite direction.

 

A total of 175 people lost their lives, among them 55 Canadian-Iranian citizens, another 30 were permanent residents of Canada, plus dozens of Iranian students travelling to Canada on student visas. In Iran, Iranian citizens reacted with fury at their government, mourning the loss of innocent lives. Protests were quickly put down by the government in Tehran. Iranian authorities' insistence that an air defence operator mistook the Boeing 737-800 for an American cruise missile was less than palatable.

This year an Iranian court sentenced an air defence commander they claim was responsible for the loss of so many lives, to 13 years' imprisonment. The four countries that filed the case with the world court in The Hague consider that prosecution nothing less than "a sham and opaque trial". Last week, Iran filed a case against Canada linked to the shooting down of the Ukraine passenger jet, where it accused Canada of flouting state immunity when it permitted relatives of terrorism victims to seek reparations from the Islamic Republic.

Iran is such a law-abiding country under its theocratic regime, which nurtures proxy terrorist groups that act on its behalf. But it is not itself above criminal acts, readily identifiable as when this week alone it attempted to seize two oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, firing shots at one of the tankers. Iranian naval vessels backed off once the U.S. Navy intervened. It has, in the last two years, seized five commercial vessels in and around the Strait of Hormuz, which it claims is not international waters, but its sovereign territory.

A vigil  in Toronto, Canada, on the anniversary of the tragedy   Reuters