'Act of terrorism': Canadian court ruled Iran deliberately shot down Ukrainian plane

A court in Canada ruled on the plane crash of a Ukrainian airliner in Iran. It says Iran deliberately launched a terrorist attack when it fired two missiles at Ukraine International Airlines in January 2020. The publication told about this in more detail. with the BBC.

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The court ordered Iran to pay compensation to a group of relatives who went to court in Canada.

The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that such a court decision is politically motivated and unsubstantiated.

“The verdict of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice is baseless. This court is not qualified to investigate this disaster,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Said Khatibzadeh.

Act of terrorism

In a written decision released Thursday, May 20, Canadian Judge Edward Belobaba ruled that "on the basis of a balance of probabilities," the Iranian Revolutionary Guard had committed an act of deliberate terrorism by shooting down Flight PS752.

The list of the accused includes the commanders of the Armed Forces of Iran, Iran and its religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran did not defend itself at the trial.

The decision should become the basis for a verdict in the summer on the amount of compensation in a civil claim of four people who lost loved ones in that plane crash.

Plaintiffs demand a minimum of $ 1,25 billion in compensation.

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On board the UIA plane, which was shot down shortly after its departure from Tehran airport on January 8, 2020, 176 people were killed, including 11 Ukrainians (nine crew members and two passengers). More than half of the passengers (138) were bound for Canada.

Long process

Usually, Canadian courts do not consider cases of foreign states, since they do not fall under their jurisdiction. But a law passed in Canada in 2012 made exceptions for countries defined as “states that support terrorism,” notably Iran.

Canada has no formal diplomatic relationship with Iran, and seeking compensation can be a lengthy and difficult process, but it has been successful in the past.

One of the plaintiffs' attorneys, John Arnold, has represented clients in other lawsuits against Iran. For example, when in 2017 the court decided to confiscate part of Iranian assets in Canada.

The lawyer says Iran still has other assets in Canada and abroad that plaintiffs can count on.

The Iranian authorities said the plane crash was a "catastrophic mistake" by the Armed Forces, which were in a state of heightened alarm during the confrontation with the United States.

The Iranian Armed Forces only a few days later admitted their guilt, stating that it was the mistake of the operator of the air defense system (air defense), who confused the plane with an enemy missile.

Iranian media reported that the US Army could use electronic warfare to force the air defense system to confuse a Boeing 737-800 aircraft with an American missile, the court ruling indicated.

“Plaintiffs have established that, on the balance of probabilities, the missiles were fired on purpose because there was no armed conflict taking place at the time,” the judge said.

“This is the best solution we could get,” said one of the plaintiffs, Shaheen Mohaddam, who lost his wife and son in the fatal plane crash.

He stressed that families who have lost loved ones do not want compensation, but justice.

According to the plaintiff, the court's decision creates pressure on the Canadian authorities.

“There is still a long way to go. We need to see what next step the Canadian government will take,” Moghaddam concluded.

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Earlier this year, Canadian authorities said Iran did not provide sufficient evidence that the UIA plane was shot down by mistake.

The head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Dmitry Kuleba, said in March that Iran had conducted an investigation with numerous violations of international standards, the Chicago Convention and the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

“We are forced to admit that the investigation was biased, the evidence presented was selective, and the conclusions were false,” the minister noted after the release of the Iranian report.

He said that he considers the content of the document "a cynical attempt to hide the true causes of the disaster."

NSDC Secretary Aleksey Danilov said in April that Iran's refusal to provide full access to the investigation into the circumstances of the plane crash convinced him that the plane was shot down deliberately.

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• Boeing-737 Ukraine International Airlines crashed January 8, a few minutes after departure from Tehran airport. All 176 people on board were killed - 167 passengers and nine crew members.
• The crashed near Tehran (Iran) plane of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) before the fall, made a U-turn and tried to return to the departure airport, the Iranian Civil Aviation Administration said in a preliminary report.
• The plane crash took place against the backdrop of a difficult political environment. On the same day a little earlier Iran fired rockets at military bases in Iraqwhere were the US military. This was done in response to killing by Americans of high-ranking Iranian commander Kassem Suleimani a few days before.
• On January 9, a Ukrainian official stated that the country sees Russia's missile strike as one of several possible reasons crash of the Ukrainian passenger plane.
• As stated in a statement by the Iranian General Staff, a few hours after Iran’s missile attacks on US military bases, the number of flights of US military aircraft increased significantly, and "this circumstance caused increased sensitivity among the air defense units."
• President Donald Trump doubts that the Ukrainian Boeing 737 crashed in Iran crashed due to technical problems... He was supported by the Prime Ministers of Canada and Great Britain. However, Iran these accusations rejected and insisted that the most likely cause of the disaster was a technical malfunction.
• Iranian authorities said that Boeing of Ukraine International Airlines flew close to the war zone and was unintentionally shot down... The head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that the air defense system operator mistook the plane for a cruise missile and shot it down without being able to contact the command.
• The decoding of the flight recorders of the plane shot down in Iran in January 2020 confirmed that the airliner was serviceable and crashed due to a missile hit.
• Life stories of Ukrainians who died in a plane crash in Iran, read in our material.

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