Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom condemn Iran before a UN agency for shooting down a civilian plane

Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom condemned Iran on Monday before the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency, for its illegal shooting down of a Ukraine International Airlines passenger plane on January 8, 2020. They said in a joint statement that Iran refused to take full legal responsibility for shooting down the flight. PS752 Despite our numerous attempts to enter into negotiations on this matter. For this reason, they confirmed that they had sent a request to the Council of the Organization to decide the matter in accordance with Article 84 of the Chicago Convention, which allows any Member State to submit a petition regarding any unresolved dispute. In this sense, they noted that this action reflects their “commitment to the families who deserve justice,” as well as to the Council and the international community. They stressed that “it is necessary to hold accountable those who violate the rules.” The governments of Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom have already formally filed another complaint in July 2023 against Iran before the International Court of Justice over the downing of the plane, which killed 176 people on board. . The commander of the Tor M-1 air defense system, sentenced to thirteen years in prison, believed flight PS752 to be a cruise missile, so he ordered its launch even though he had no permission and even though it was in violation of established protocols. Two surface-to-air missiles were fired, bringing down the device. Three days after the tragedy, the Iranian government admitted that it shot down the plane “by mistake” amid tension over the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, the architect of the Islamic Republic’s foreign policy, in a US attack on Iraqi territory.