An Iranian court has sentenced ten soldiers of the Iranian Armed Forces, who are considered responsible for the downing of the Ukrainian International Airlines plane, to prison terms, the BBC writes.
In January 2020, flight PS752 was shot down by two missiles fired by the Air Defense Unit after taking off from Tehran. All 176 people on board died.
The commander of the unit was sentenced to 13 years in prison for disobeying orders and for actions that led to the death of persons. The families of the victims called the sentence senseless and unacceptable, because low-level scapegoats are convicted, not the main perpetrators of the crime.
Ukraine, Canada, Great Britain and Sweden, whose citizens were on the plane, said
the missiles were fired illegally and on purpose and vowed to hold Iran accountable.
For the first three days after the downing of flight PS752, Iran’s armed forces denied any involvement in the disaster and insisted there was a technical glitch. Only when the evidence was no longer deniable did the Air Force admit to mistaking the Boeing 737-800 for a US missile.
In 2021, the Civil Aviation Organization of Iran published the final report on the incident. The downing of the plane was blamed on human error, and the system was allegedly not installed correctly after the transfer, which also allowed the plane to be mistaken for a missile. The operator also allegedly launched surface-to-air missiles without the commander’s permission. At the time, Ukraine called the report a cynical attempt to hide the truth. Without answering questions about what really happened, the report is incomplete and lacks evidence.
Along with the commander, nine other staff members of various ranks have been convicted
and their terms of imprisonment range from one to three years. Judgments can still be appealed.
Families of victims stated that they do not recognize the legality of the court. The association believes that the real perpetrators of the crime did not come before the court, and ten low-ranking officers were made scapegoats instead. Court hearings have been opaque and impossible to observe. The families of the victims believe that the case is still open and have called on the countries involved to refer it to the International Criminal Court.