Investigative Report by Families of Victims Association on Evidence of ‘Intentional’ Downing of Ukrainian Plane

The families of victims of the Ukrainian airliner held a press conference on Wednesday evening, December 3rd, to present sections of a fact-finding committee report by the association regarding evidence of the deliberate downing of flight 752 in an online format.

Javad Soleimani, a member of the association and husband of Elnaz Nabiey, one of the victims of flight 752, said at today’s conference that the Islamic Republic of Iran has refrained from handing over “complete remains” of the victims to a significant portion of the families.

He also described the Canadian government’s performance in pursuing the Ukrainian plane case as “very slow.”

Hamed Esmailioun, spokesperson of the association who lost his wife and daughter in this flight, confirmed that reactions to the Iranian government regarding the downing of the Ukrainian plane were not “decisive.”

Stating that the course of evidence and facts shows that the downing of the Ukrainian plane was “intentional,” he added: “Canada and the international community should declare the entire Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.”

Mr. Esmailioun clarified: “We do not want an easy-going response to Iran.”

Flight PS752 of Ukrainian Airlines was shot down in the early morning of January 8, 2020, shortly after takeoff from Tehran International Airport by two air defense missiles fired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, killing all 176 passengers and crew, including 164 Iranians.

After several days of concealment and contradictory and false statements, the Islamic Republic eventually admitted that the Guard’s air defense system fired at the civilian airliner, but claimed the reason for firing was “human error.” Ukraine, Canada, and some observers say they do not accept this claim and that the Iranian government is covering up the real reasons behind this incident.

In fact, the Islamic Republic’s concealment, numerous contradictions, and multiple false claims by various Iranian government officials, including Guard commanders, government officials, and the judiciary, have caused many to seriously doubt the claims of the Islamic Republic’s officials.

In the report of the families of victims association of the Ukrainian airliner, controversial evidence is mentioned such as “deliberately keeping the country’s airspace open in dangerous wartime conditions,” “diverting other flights,” “complete destruction of passengers’ electronic devices,” “suspicious 57-minute delay in flight and evacuation of some passengers.”

Accordingly, some of the results presented in this investigative report have not appeared in any of the reports previously published, and some other results are based on information that has been made available to the public so far.

Furthermore, during today’s virtual meeting, Javad Soleimani, referring to statements by Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s former foreign minister, about the possibility of the “intentional” downing of the Ukrainian plane, said that the Islamic Republic’s officials “for the purpose of creating a human shield” kept Iran’s airspace open on the night of the attack on American bases in Iraq.

Hamed Esmailioun, spokesperson of the families of victims of flight 752, emphasizing the need for “an independent international report on the Ukrainian airliner,” said: “We want the complete release of the contents of the aircraft’s black box and the contents of the black box of the Tor-M1 system.”

The association, which represents the families of 140 victims, is also demanding the release of innocent protesters who have been detained for protesting the downing of the Ukrainian airliner.

So far, multiple reports have been published about the measures taken by the Islamic Republic’s security forces to intimidate the families of flight 752 victims. Canada’s intelligence and security organization has stated that it has “credible reports” of harassment and intimidation of families and relatives of victims in Canada.

Human Rights Watch also announced on May 27th that since the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps downed the Ukrainian airliner in December 2019, the families of the victims of this flight have been systematically subjected to harassment and abuse by Iranian government officials.

The Ontario Superior Court had previously ruled in a judgment that firing a missile at the Ukrainian civilian airliner by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was “intentional and terrorist.” Based on this judgment, a report by Canada’s former Minister of Public Safety also shows that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s claim about the role of “human error” in the downing of this flight is incorrect.

On the other hand, coinciding with the announcement of the trial to hear charges against 10 defendants in the case of firing missiles by the Guard at the Ukrainian airliner in Tehran, some families of victims of this flight gathered on November 20th in front of Tehran’s military court and chanted slogans such as “Death to Khamenei” and “Death to the Islamic Republic.”

A few days before the trial, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Guard’s Aerospace Force, said he was not in Tehran on the day the plane was downed and “it took 48 hours for the initial conclusion to take place and everyone became convinced that this happened and we certainly had to say so.”

He claimed that “permission to fire and order to fire were not given, but (the person who fired) was placed in that space,” and this is a matter that should be clarified by the judiciary.

The commander of the Guard’s Aerospace Force also claimed on January 11th, 2020, that “because of a person’s hasty decision-making, we witnessed this accident.”

These claims are being made while Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said the Revolutionary Guard “intentionally” fired at and shot down the civilian airliner to “prevent escalation of regional tensions between Iran and the United States.”

In an interview published in the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, he clarified that he had raised this issue during his visit to Tehran with Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

The escape from responsibility by the Guard commanders comes as they do not say that on the night when, according to the Guard commander, Iran’s airspace was in “very sensitive” conditions, whether the Guard was also responsible for ensuring certainty and pursuing the cancellation of commercial flights? Did the Guard follow up on this matter? Which entity disobeyed the Guard’s order and what considerations prevented this from being implemented? On the other hand, if the launching of one missile was due to “error,” why was the second missile also launched?

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had previously described the Iranian government’s official portrayal of how the plane was shot down as “hypocritical, misleading, and superficial.”

Source: Radio Farda