A court in Tehran has sentenced 10 Iranian military personnel for their involvement in the shooting down of Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752 in January 2020. However, the sentence has been dismissed as a "sham ruling" by victims' families who claim that the Iranian authorities have failed to prosecute those ultimately responsible for the disaster.
The main defendant in the trial was the unnamed commander of the Tor M1 surface-to-air missile defense system that shot down the plane, killing all 176 people on board. The commander was sentenced to 13 years in prison, while the other defendants found guilty were personnel of the air defense post.
The Boeing 737 flight departed from Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran and was headed to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv when it was hit by anti-aircraft missiles shortly after takeoff. Days after the downing, Iranian authorities admitted that its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force had shot the plane down by mistake after it was misidentified as a cruise missile by an air defense operator.
In the final verdict on Sunday, the Tehran court said the passenger plane was shot down by "human error." The commander fired missiles at the civilian aircraft twice, "contrary to the order of the command post and other instructions," the court said.
The Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims, an international group seeking justice for those killed, released a statement on Sunday saying the victims' families "never recognized the Islamic Regime's court as a legitimate tribunal." The group claimed that the tribunal had failed to prosecute the "main perpetrators" of the incident, instead prosecuting "ten low-ranking officers with total obscurity of their backgrounds and identities."
The association condemned the trial as a "sham ruling" after court sessions were held in private, with victims' families not present for hearings. More than 70 complainants from the families of victims had withdrawn their complaints before the sentencing was handed down and rejected the competence of the court, it said.
The group considers the case still open and is demanding the dispute be considered by the International Court of Justice.
The passenger jet downing happened at a time of heightened tensions with the United States, hours after Iran launched ballistic missile strikes on a US base in Iraq, an act of retaliation for the US drone killing of Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.
The tragedy claimed the lives of 138 people who were traveling to Canada, according to the CBC. Among the victims were 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans, and three Britons. The incident sparked anti-government protests in Tehran, with some calling for the removal of Iran's supreme leader and for the prosecution of those responsible.