Iran jails 10 service members over 2020 downing of Ukrainian passenger jet
A court in Iran has sentenced ten Iranian military personnel to prison due to their involvement in the downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet over Tehran in 2020.
That's according to Mizan Online, Ukrinform reports.
The service members were found guilty of the disaster that killed 176 people.
According to the report, a commander was sentenced to 13 years in prison, while nine other members of the armed forces received terms of one to three years.
In total, 20 court hearings have already been held in this case, in which 117 plaintiffs filed their lawsuits, 55 of the plaintiffs spoke and read out their complaints, and 20 lawyers represented the plaintiffs.
On January 8, 2020, the Ukraine International Airlines plane (Flight PS752) heading from Tehran to Kyiv crashed shortly after taking off from the Imam Khomeini International Airport. There were 176 people on board – nine crew members (all Ukrainians) and 167 passengers (citizens of Ukraine, Iran, Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan, Germany, and the UK). All of them died.
On January 11, 2020, Iran admitted that its military had accidentally shot down the Ukrainian passenger jet. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accepted full responsibility for the downing of the Ukrainian airliner.
On January 5, 2021, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Ukraine had received a draft technical report from Iran on the circumstances of the plane crash.
In early 2022, Iran officially refused to continue negotiations on the investigation into the consequences of the disaster. Tehran told Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and Britain that it was refusing to negotiate over the UIA plane crash.
In a joint statement on December 29, 2022, Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Ukraine called on Iran to agree to arbitration of the dispute related to the downing of flight PS752.
Photo: AA