Following Parliamentary Representative’s Defense of Shooting Down Passenger Plane, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Demands Immediate Explanation from Iranian Government

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister demanded “immediate clarification” from the Iranian government regarding statements made by a parliamentary representative about the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane.

Vadym Prystaiko, in a tweet, described the parliamentary representative’s remarks as “regrettable” and “complete disrespect” toward the victims of the Ukrainian airplane.

In this tweet, he referred to dozens of families of these victims from Iran, Ukraine, Canada, Sweden, England, and Afghanistan; families who lost their loved ones in “the attack on this defenseless civilian aircraft.”

Hossein Norouzi, a parliamentary representative, stated on April 7 in an interview with Hamdelii newspaper that this airplane had been in “Israel” a week before and “appears” to have been “tampered with.”

The parliamentary representative had claimed: “In my opinion, the military forces have performed their duty well in this regard. Therefore, there will be no accountability or detention in this matter.”

However, subsequently, Iranian media, citing an informed source in the Armed Forces Judiciary Organization, refuted the representative’s statements, and the head of Iran’s Armed Forces Judiciary Organization also stated that a complaint had been filed against this representative in competent judicial authorities under the charges of spreading falsehoods and disturbing public opinion.

Nevertheless, despite three months having passed since the Ukrainian airplane was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, no report has been released on the process of detaining those responsible for shooting down the aircraft, and even the airplane’s black boxes have not been sent to other countries for reading.

Previously, Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, announced Ukraine’s continued pressure on the Islamic Republic to hand over the black boxes of the Ukrainian passenger plane shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and to identify who ordered the missile strike on the aircraft.

The Ukrainian Foreign Minister had stated that the issue is not that “a soldier rushed in firing a missile and overreacted. We want to find the chain of command and who gave the order so that justice can be served against that person.”

Flight 752 of Ukraine International Airlines, which departed Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport on January 8, 2020, with 176 passengers bound for Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, crashed minutes after takeoff as a result of a missile attack by the Revolutionary Guard Corps near Parand city in Tehran Province, and all passengers, mostly Iranian citizens, were killed.

Recently, the “Association of Families of PS752 Flight Victims” announced its formation with the goal of seeking justice and implementing accountability.

Canadian lawyers who had previously successfully prosecuted Iran in another case have also taken on the representation of families of the victims of the Ukrainian passenger plane that was targeted and shot down by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps missiles near Tehran.

In the legal complaint filed by this Canadian team, Iran, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and some Iranian officials are named as defendants or accused parties, and in order to protect the identity of the complainant, the pseudonym “John Doe” is used.

Source: Voice of America