Human Rights Watch: Instead of accepting responsibility, the Islamic Republic imprisons protesters over the downing of the Ukrainian plane
Human Rights Watch says that the Islamic Republic's judiciary sentenced at least 13 people to long prison terms in late April 2020 simply for peacefully protesting the Revolutionary Guard Corps' deadly attack on a Ukrainian airliner and the Iranian government's initial denial of the attack on that passenger plane.
Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, says that the Islamic Republic's authorities are once again avoiding responsibility, as they have done in the past. Instead of providing details of the investigation into the downing of the plane and those responsible for its fatal mistake, they have condemned those who protested the deaths of 176 people.
Earlier in January, Gholamhossein Esmaili, a spokesman for the Islamic Republic's judiciary, told reporters that about 30 people had been arrested in connection with the protests and an unknown number had been detained in connection with the targeting of the plane.
Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, which was en route from Tehran to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev with 176 passengers on board on January 8, 2020, crashed minutes after taking off due to a missile attack by the Revolutionary Guard near the new city of Parand in Tehran province, killing all of its passengers, who were mostly Iranians.
The Islamic Republic has so far refused to hand over the plane's black box, and US State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus announced on April 10, the 100th day since the plane attack: "We call on the Iranian regime to hand over the black box data and to stop harassing the families of the victims, who have the right to mourn in peace."
