Global Courant
On Wednesday, the United Nations’ highest court announced the filing of a lawsuit by the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden and Ukraine against Iran.
The case relates to the tragic incident in 2020 when a Ukrainian airliner with 176 passengers crashed, resulting in the loss of life of all passengers and crew members.
The goal of the four countries is to seek a ruling from the International Court of Justice, declaring that Iran unlawfully targeted and shot down the Ukraine International Airlines plane.
Additionally, they aim to obtain a court order forcing Tehran to apologize and provide compensation to the families affected by the tragedy.
Flight PS752 was traveling from Tehran to Kyiv on January 8, 2020 when it crashed shortly after takeoff.
Those killed included citizens and residents of Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom, as well as Afghanistan and Iran. Their ages ranged from 1 year to 74 years.
“Today’s legal action reflects our unwavering commitment to achieving transparency, justice and accountability for the victims’ families,” the countries said in a joint statement on Wednesday.
They said they filed the lawsuit after Iran failed to respond to a December request for arbitration.
After three days of denials in January 2020, Iran said its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard mistakenly shot down the Ukrainian airliner with two surface-to-air missiles. Iranian authorities blamed an air defense operator they said mistook the Boeing 737-800 for a US cruise missile.
An Iranian court this year sentenced an air defense commander suspected of being responsible for the downing to 13 years in prison, according to the country’s official judiciary news paper.
But the countries that filed the suit at the court in The Hague called the prosecution “a sham and dark trial”.
According to the court filing published on Wednesday, the UK, Canada, Sweden and Ukraine argue that Iran “failed to take all practicable measures to prevent the unlawful and deliberate commission of a criminal offence” and “failed to commit a crime of impartial, transparent and fair”. investigation and prosecution in accordance with international law”.
The document alleges that Iran hid or destroyed evidence, blamed other countries and low-level Revolutionary Guard personnel, “threatened and harassed victims’ families seeking justice” and failed to report details of the incident to the International Civil Aviation Organization.
The plane crash happened on the same day Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on US troops in Iraq in retaliation for a US drone strike that killed a senior Iranian general./ REL
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