Protest Gathering Against ICAO’s Silence on Ukrainian Airplane Incident

Hamed Esmaeilion, spokesperson for the Association of Families of Flight 752 Victims, who lost his daughter and wife in the airplane crash, accused international bodies during a speech at this gathering of not understanding the nature and approach of the Islamic Republic. He said: “We Iranian-Canadians say that these organizations and governments do not know the Islamic Republic the way we do. No one knows this tyrannical regime better than us who have carried its yoke for 42 years. We are the ones who know they are capable of any crime.” Esmaeilion, pointing out that in the Islamic Republic it is not “law, moral conscience, scientific competence, and technical analysis” but rather “ideology and oppression” that prevails, criticized ICAO for being indifferent to these issues.

ICAO responded to this protest gathering and thanked the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims in a tweet “for actively representing the victims of this tragic event.”

“Start of Trial of Defendants in Tehran”

Hours before the Toronto gathering, the head of the judicial organization of the Iranian Armed Forces claimed that “access to the file of the Ukrainian airplane incident has been provided to the legal representatives of the case.”

According to ISNA, Shakrollah Bahrami, on the sidelines of a ceremony for the departure and introduction of the head of the judicial organization of the Armed Forces in Kurdistan, announced in front of reporters that he was “aware of the proceedings regarding the case of 10 defendants in the Ukrainian airplane incident” and informed about the start of court sessions for these defendants.

One week earlier, the Canadian government presented an investigative report on the missile attack by the IRGC air defense on the Ukrainian airline Flight PS-752, in which it criticized the Islamic Republic’s lack of transparent reporting, given that authorities in that country had access to all documents and evidence.

The report holds the Iranian government responsible for the missile attack incident due to its disregard for human lives.

In a section of this report, it stated that there was no evidence that the attack was intentional or that there was a premeditated plan for the attack. However, it emphasized that the “unintentional” nature of the missile attack on the Ukrainian passenger airplane does not absolve the Iranian government of responsibility.

Canada rejected Iran’s legal explanation and the claim that the missile attack was merely due to “radar malfunction” and “operator error” in air defense, and believes the responsibility for this attack is much heavier than charging a few low-level individuals.

Iran described the Canadian government’s report as “technically baseless and therefore unacceptable.”

This is while in late June, Canada, Sweden, Ukraine, and Britain, whose citizens were killed in the IRGC missile attack on the Ukrainian passenger airplane, in a statement called Iran’s final report “deceptive” and described the measures and statements of Iranian officials as “violations of international law.”

The Ukrainian airline passenger airplane was shot down in December 2019 with two missiles fired by the IRGC air defense, and all 176 passengers on board were killed.