The Tehran court is tasked with finding out more than a hundred defendants in the lawsuit to find out who was responsible for shooting down the plane and why they obstructed the investigation.
A Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 from Tehran to Kiev crashed near the Iranian capital on January 8, 2020, shortly after takeoff. Iranian authorities initially spoke about the incident and then admitted that the IRGC’s air defense had fired the plane by mistake.
There were 176 people on board the plane, and no one survived the tragedy.
According to the Iranian government, it was a “fatal mistake” on the part of the military to be on the alert after a US drone killed General Qassem Suleiman, a prominent commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Baghdad. The Iranians fear a possible retaliation after missiles were fired at Iraqi bases stationed by US forces in response to the drone attack. A report from Iran’s Civil Aviation Authority last July noted mismanagement of military radar and numerous human omissions that could have led to the downing of the Ukrainian airliner.
Last December, the Tehran leadership offered compensation to relatives of the dead at $150,000 per person.
Cover image source: Getty Images
