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DEAn Iranian military court began a hearing over the shooting down of the Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) plane in January 2020, AP reports with reference to IRNA, Iran’s news agency.
Ten military personnel from various ranks were present at a court session in Tehran on 21 November. Families of victims and their lawyers also attended the session, representing 103 legal complaints in the case.
The court heard statements by lawyers of victim’s families. The next session will be announced later.
The session was the first hearing since the shooting down of the UIA plane en route to Kyiv shortly after taking off from the airport of Tehran on 8 January 2020. All 176 people on board died.
At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine stated that they consider the participation of the Ukrainian ambassador in the court session inappropriate, though thanked for the invitation to attend it.
“As of today, the requests for international legal assistance in criminal proceedings, sent by the Ukrainian side to the competent authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran, have not been fully complied with, the requested documents and information have not been provided by the Iranian side,” reads the statement.
The Ukrainian side call on Iran to comply with its obligations under international law and to provide requested information to the Ukrainian authorities.
As a reminder, in June 2021, the Government of Canada published conclusions regarding the investigation into the downing of the Ukrainian Flight PS752. According to them, there is no evidence that the downing was planned, while the Iranian authorities are responsible for the incident.
In March this year, Iran submitted a final report on the investigation into the downing of the UIA passenger plane. The document states that the plane was destroyed due to a mistake by the air defence system operator, who identified it as an enemy target.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called the content of the document“ a cynical attempt to conceal the true reasons for the downing of the plane.”
Bohdan Marusyak
