Families of Ukrainian Flight Victims Form Association to Pursue Case and Seek Justice
Families of victims of the Ukrainian flight that was targeted by a missile strike by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced the formation of an association to pursue the case of this flight and launched the association’s website.
Several families of the victims held an online press conference on Tuesday, June 17, stating that others can also voluntarily contribute by visiting the website.
They outlined the association’s goals as “keeping the memory of the victims alive,” “supporting the families of the victims,” and “demanding justice.”
During the press conference, the families of the victims stated that the Iranian government does not cooperate with other countries and does not answer important questions about how the aircraft was targeted and the events before and after the incident. They emphasized that Iran should be pressured to respond through the International Court of Justice.
Hamed Esmaeilion, the husband and father of one of the Ukrainian flight victims, said that compensation is important, but the families in Canada do not expect the Iranian government to simply pay money for what it did to their families. He said that for them in Canada, justice is more important than anything else. He stressed that families also want to know the names of those who ordered and carried out the targeting of the Ukrainian aircraft.
Mr. Esmaeilion, expressing skepticism about Iran’s claim that the aircraft was targeted due to human error, said that Iran must prove this. He also raised the question of why, if tensions in the region were very high, Iran did not close its airspace to commercial and passenger flights.
Mr. Esmaeilion also emphasized the failure to return belongings and items belonging to the victims to their families, stating that Iranian regime officials even refused to hand over the Canadian passports of the victims. He also referred to the disappearance of wedding rings, personal items, suitcases and other belongings of passengers on that flight after the crash, as well as the government’s action to quickly clean up the crash site, considering this as evidence of “looting of property” by the government.
Hamed Esmaeilion accused Iran of providing false information and said: “You just need to look at Iranian websites.” He said that Iranian websites “are engaged in a complex propaganda campaign to exhaust the families of the victims from pursuing this case.”
He said he will soon meet with Canada’s foreign minister and hopes to receive new information. Mr. Esmaeilion called for the families of the victims to be present as observers in the investigations.
Javad Soleimani, the husband of another victim, also reported the continuous harassment of the families of the Ukrainian aircraft victims and said that in the near future he will provide a report to the media and possibly Amnesty International. Javad Soleimani said that when he traveled to Iran and criticized the action of the authorities in targeting the aircraft, he was summoned by the Ministry of Intelligence and asked to explain his conduct. He also said that Iranian aviation authorities contacted the families of the victims and asked them to refrain from criticizing Iran’s actions regarding the Ukrainian flight.
Mr. Soleimani emphasized that bereaved families cannot remain silent in the face of this crime and killing of their loved ones by the Iranian regime.
Flight 752 of Ukraine International Airlines, which departed Tehran on January 8, 2020 with 176 passengers bound for Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, crashed minutes after takeoff due to a missile attack by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps near the city of Parand in Tehran Province, and all passengers, mostly Iranians, were killed.
Source: Voice of America
