Two collective lawsuits against Iran by families of Ukrainian plane victims

Two class action lawsuits have been filed against Iran eight months after the Revolutionary Guards' missile attack on a Ukrainian passenger plane. The attack killed 176 people, including a number of Canadians.

The Canadian government has announced that two class action lawsuits filed by two law firms have been delivered to the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Canadian newspaper "National Post" reported the filing of these two class action lawsuits. The case concerns the complaint of relatives of the victims of the downing of the Ukrainian passenger plane, which was shot down by the Islamic Republic of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

A number of the victims on the plane were Canadian citizens of Iranian descent. All 176 people on board were killed when the Revolutionary Guards shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane on January 8th of this year.

Delay in submitting complaints

Both lawsuits were reportedly filed by two law firms in Canada shortly after the downing of the Ukrainian plane.

The delay in sending these two complaints by the Canadian government to the Islamic Republic's officials had fueled speculation that the Canadian government had possibly avoided doing so for political reasons.

However, the Canadian government has clarified that the reason for this delay was not political, but was due to the spread of the coronavirus and its impact on legal proceedings. Now, the Canadian government has officially announced that it has delivered both collective complaints to the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

One of the class action lawsuits is being led by Mark Arnold, who said in an interview with Canada's CBC radio that relatives of the victims of the IRGC missile attack on the Ukrainian plane can now sue the Islamic Republic government for this "act of terrorism."

"I believe what happened was an act of terrorism," said Mark Arnold. Arnold stressed that despite filing a lawsuit in January, the Canadian government has not provided sufficient information on the progress of its legal proceedings.

The Canadian lawyer said: "It is gratifying that the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs has finally handed over these complaints after eight months of holding them."

Michael Campbell, Director of the Criminal, Security and Diplomatic Law Division at the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, announced in a letter on September 1 that the complaints had been delivered to relevant officials at the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Handling complaints

Mark Arnold also announced that a copy of these complaints was also sent to Ali Khamenei's email address, and Khamenei's office confirmed receipt.

The submission of the collective complaints to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran came a few days after Iranian authorities announced their readiness to review the complaints and pay compensation to the victims of the missile attack.

It is said that both class action lawsuits (Arnold's lawsuit and the lawsuit filed by Tom Arnett's law firm) are being filed independently of the negotiations between representatives of the relevant countries regarding compensation and reparations.

A decision on the legal action to be taken in these two lawsuits is also scheduled for October. A law firm is set to take charge of advancing these collective complaints.

Source: DW