Families of victims of downed Ukraine Airlines Flight 752 plane applaud action from Canada

The families of the victims of the downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 gathered in Toronto Wednesday to show support for four countries who have filed a complaint against Iran, saying they intentionally shot down the plane in January 2020.

Hamed Esmaeilion, who lost his wife and 7-year-old daughter in the incident, said that the simultaneous complaint being made by the Iranian government against Canada is “propaganda.”

The families, who gathered at North York Central Library, said they have been searching for justice for more than three years.

Canada, U.K., Sweden and Ukraine officially filed the complaint Wednesday against Iran at the International Court of Justice (The Hague) for “intentionally shooting down” the plane.

Fifty-five Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents were among the 176 people killed.

“Today’s legal action reflects our unwavering commitment to achieving transparency, justice and accountability for the families of the victims,” the countries said in a joint statement Wednesday. They said they filed the case after Iran failed to respond to a December request for arbitration.

“We will not agree on compensation in any way until the truth and justice in this case is known,” said Esmaeilion, an Iranian-Canadian citizen who is representing the PS752 Flight Victims’ Families Association.

Esmaeilion added that the Iranian government is using the defenceless passengers of the Ukrainian plane as a human shield to achieve foreign political demands.

In their complaint, the four countries asked the International Court of Justice to rule that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran “illegally shot down the Ukrainian plane and should apologize.” They also demanded compensation for the families of the victims.

“Iran must be held to account for their actions and we will continue to fight for the transparency, accountability and justice that victims’ families deserve,” Foreign Affairs Minister, Mélanie Joly wrote on Twitter.

Iran filed a lawsuit against Canada at the UN International Court of Justice late last month.

In its case announced June 28 by the International Court of Justice, Tehran argued that Canada is “obliged to respect the jurisdictional immunity which Iran enjoys under international law,” and should not allow civil claims against Iran “for alleged support to, or acts of, terrorism.”

Canada also should not allow its courts to recognize foreign judgments in terrorism cases linked to Iran and has no right to seize Iranian property in order to enforce such judgments, the written filing says.

Among the Canadian cases cited in Iran’s written filing is a ruling by the Ontario Superior Court that the Iranian military’s downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 with two surface-to-air missiles constituted an “act of terrorism.”

Flight PS752 was travelling from Tehran to Kyiv on Jan. 8, 2020 when it was shot down soon after takeoff. All of those on board were killed, their ages ranged from 1 to 74 years old.

Following three days of denials in January 2020, Iran said its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard mistakenly downed the Ukrainian plane with two surface-to-air missiles. Iranian authorities blamed an air defence operator who they said mistook the Boeing 737-800 for an American cruise missile.

An Iranian court this year sentenced the air defence commander allegedly responsible for the downing to 13 years imprisonment, according to the country’s official judiciary news outlet.

But the countries that filed the case with the world court in The Hague called the prosecution “a sham and opaque trial.”

The downing happened on the same day Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on U.S. troops in Iraq in retaliation for an American drone strike that killed a top Iranian general.

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