Exclusive; Canada's Reaction to Request for Separate International Investigation into the Downing of the Ukrainian Plane

A Canadian official has officially acknowledged for the first time that the families of the victims of flight PS752, including Canadians who lost family members in the downing of the Ukrainian plane by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), have requested the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague to take action on this matter. Ralph Goodale, Canada's High Commissioner in the UK, wrote in a letter to Voice of America, "The process of requesting the ICC is an option that was available to the families, and they have taken this action; now it is up to the independent prosecutor of the ICC to review this request." Mr. Goodale was appointed in March 2020 as a special advisor to Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, regarding Ottawa's response to the downing of flight PS752. The association of families of the victims of flight PS752 announced last September that they had submitted a complaint to the ICC prosecutor to expand the scope of investigations into alleged war crimes in Ukraine and to include the IRGC's missile attack on the Ukrainian passenger plane in these investigations. The ICC prosecutor's office in The Hague has not yet issued a statement regarding whether it will consider the preliminary review of this association's 12-month request. The association's request has been submitted in accordance with the Rome Statute of the ICC, which allows the prosecutor to initiate investigations based on information related to crimes within a country. The ICC examines and prosecutes individuals accused of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, or aggression. According to the law, the ICC begins to handle a case when the prosecutor's office determines whether there is sufficient evidence of a crime within the jurisdiction of the ICC and whether initiating investigations by this body would serve justice and the interests of victims. The ICC's website states: "If the requirements for initiating investigations are not met, or if the prosecution of the crimes is not within the jurisdiction of the ICC, the ICC prosecutor cannot investigate this matter." The laws of the ICC allow the prosecutor to initiate investigations on their own initiative or at the request of any of the 123 countries that have signed the Rome Statute. These countries include Canada, the UK, and Sweden, which are the three countries that lost their citizens in the downing of the Ukrainian plane. Ukraine, the fourth country whose citizens were killed in this incident, is not a signatory to the Rome Statute but has accepted the jurisdiction of the ICC regarding crimes committed on its territory since November 2013. Last month, the UK, Canada, Sweden, and Ukraine filed a separate complaint with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the main judicial body of the United Nations responsible for resolving legal disputes between countries. In their complaint, they raised the issue that the Islamic Republic has violated international legal obligations. The Islamic Republic denies this claim and states that the complainants are acting in line with "political objectives." Kourosh Doostshenas, spokesperson for the association of families of the victims of flight PS752, told Voice of America, "We are trying to understand why countries are reluctant to support our case at the ICC. We understand that the ICC prosecutors are busy with investigations into alleged crimes in Ukraine and elsewhere, but we do not want our case to be forgotten in the meantime." Ralph Goodale, Canada's High Commissioner in the UK, stated in his letter to Voice of America that the UK, Canada, Sweden, and Ukraine have "not ruled out any options" in pursuing accountability and justice for the families of the victims of flight PS752. He said, "As Mr. Doostshenas mentioned, the ICC prosecutor is currently very busy, but we continue our efforts through other means. If you read the text of the solutions we proposed to the ICJ, you will see that they largely align with the families' requests." These four countries have asked the ICJ to declare that the Islamic Republic has violated the Montreal Convention concerning unlawful acts against aviation safety. They have also requested that the ICJ compel the Islamic Republic to apologize and to return or prosecute the accused in a "transparent and impartial" manner, and to require the Iranian authorities to return the missing belongings of the victims and to pay full compensation to their families. The association of families of the victims of flight PS752 has thanked the UK, Canada, Sweden, and Ukraine for their request to the ICJ and stated that the main goal of the association is to "reveal the truth" and to "bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice" to prevent such horrific crimes from occurring in the future. This report is based on a report by Michael Lipin, a Voice of America journalist.