Canadian Court Rules that Downing of Ukrainian Plane in Iran Was Act of Terrorism

The Ontario Superior Court ruled that the downing of the Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) passenger plane near Tehran was a deliberate act of terrorism, Globalnews reports.

The judge issued the default judgment against Iran in a civil suit brought by four families of those killed in the crash. In the ruling, the judge relied on two experts, one of whom concluded that the Revolutionary Guards “knew Flight PS 752 was a civilian airplane and purposefully shot it down with the intent to destroy it.”

The judge ruled, “The plaintiffs have established that the shooting down of Flight 752 by the defendants was an act of terrorism.”

The ruling will be handed over to the Iranian authorities, whose representatives did not take part in the hearing, and the plaintiffs will now be able to seek compensation.

The defendants in the case are Iran, the Revolutionary Guards, the Iranian Armed Forces and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that the Ontario court had no jurisdiction to rule on claims for damages to families of UIA plane crash victims because the plane had crashed outside Canada. Also, according to him, the court ruling “is not based on eyewitness evidence.”

As reported, Ukraine International Airlines’ Boeing 737-800NG plane (Flight PS752) crashed shortly after taking off from the capital of Iran on 8 January 2020. All 176 people on board, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents of this country, died.

Bohdan Marusyak