Hamed Esmailiyon: Raisi has blocked the path to justice in the Ukrainian plane case

The Association of Families of Ukrainian Plane Victims, referring to Ebrahim Raisi's membership in the Supreme National Security Council, has issued a statement emphasizing that his name should not be allowed to be removed from the international sanctions list.

Part of the statement states that Ebrahim Raisi's name should be added to "the list of individuals under sanctions by Canada and other countries" and that he should one day be held accountable for his responsibility in the "crime" of shooting down the Ukrainian plane and "his other crimes in Iran over the past four decades."

Hamed Esmailiyon, spokesman for the Association of Families of the Victims of Flight 752, told VOA, noting that Ebrahim Raisi is a member of the Supreme National Security Council: "This council was responsible for opening Iran's skies on January 8, 2019; this is an unforgivable crime in which Ebrahim Raisi and other members of the council played a role."

Mr. Esmailiyon added in this regard: "By violating the laws and rights of families, Ebrahim Raisi has blocked their path to justice, and we are determined not only to not allow this person's name to be removed from the sanctions of Western countries, but also to add it to the sanctions that can be imposed against him in Canada."

Hamed Esmailiyon, who lost his son and wife in the tragedy of the downing of a Ukrainian plane by IRGC missiles, told VOA about the process of investigating the Ukrainian plane case with the election of Ebrahim Raisi as Iranian President: "I don't think there will be any progress in the investigation of the case in Iran. With this election, the Islamic Republic clearly intends to show the world its teeth and claws regarding all human rights cases."

The spokesperson for the Association of Families of the Victims of Flight 752 added that the affected families should not allow people like Ebrahim Raisi to travel abroad easily, and that Ebrahim Raisi's departure from the country and his travel to Western countries should be prevented by providing documents to human rights organizations.

Hamed Esmailiyon told VOA: "In the past eighteen months, I have realized that if the affected families do not cry out for justice, there will be no ears in Western countries."

On the morning of Wednesday, January 8, 2019, and hours after the IRGC launched a missile attack on a base hosting American forces in Iraq following the killing of Qassem Soleimani in a US drone strike, a Ukrainian Airlines Boeing 737 passenger plane with 176 passengers en route to Kiev was shot down by two missiles fired by the IRGC after taking off from Tehran Airport.

For several days, Islamic Republic officials blamed the crash on a technical failure. But at the same time, the United States explicitly announced that the plane had been shot down. After several days, the Revolutionary Guards finally announced that they had targeted the plane “by mistake.”

Source: Voice of America