In order to ensure Tehran is held accountable for shooting down flight 752, Kiev claims to have launched a lawsuit.
According to a statement from Kiev’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday, Ukraine has filed a case against Iran at the UN’s International Court of Justice for the downing of a passenger airplane in 2020.
Ukraine, together with Canada, Sweden, Ukraine, and the UK, as well as other members of the International Coordination Group for Assistance to the Victims of Flight PS752, have demanded that Tehran be held accountable for the tragedy, according to a statement posted on the ministry’s website.
As stated by the ministry, “no agreement has yet been reached between Iran and the Coordination Group to organize arbitration under Article 14 of the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts aimed against the Safety of Civil Aviation.”
A Ukraine International Airlines-operated Boeing 737-800 was traveling from Tehran to Kiev on January 8, 2020. The airplane detonated in midair shortly after takeoff from Imam Khomeini International Airport, killing all 176 people within. Along with citizens of the UK, Germany, Canada, Sweden, and Afghanistan, the casualties also included Ukrainian and Iranian nationals.
The Boeing was flying close to a military base when it was accidentally shot down by the Iranian military a week later, who claimed to have mistook it for a “enemy target.” During the time of the incident, Iran was preparing for possible US reprisal for ballistic missile attacks on American military bases in Iraq. Tehran ultimately attributed the incident to a series of human missteps and a trigger-happy air defense system operator.
A military court in Iran sentenced ten defendants to prison for the disaster in April of this year. Nine people were sentenced to between one and three years in prison, including the air defense system crew, the commander of the Tehran military installation, an officer at the regional operations control center, and a regional air defense commander. The air defense system commander received a 13-year term.
In addition to the court-ordered reparation payments, Iran additionally promised to provide each victim’s family $150,000 and announced in January 2022 that it has begun doing so.
Kiev, however, charged Tehran of failing to fully accept blame for the disaster or take steps to prevent similar tragedies from happening again.
