Lawyer for Families Seeking Justice for Ukrainian Airplane: Prosecutor Said 'We Did Well to Shoot'

On the fifth anniversary of the downing of the Ukrainian passenger plane over Tehran due to missile fire from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a lawyer representing several families revealed that a prosecutor had told some families, 'We shot it down, we did well to shoot it down.' Meanwhile, Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, claimed that the protests of the families of the deceased passengers were aimed at overshadowing the funeral of Qassem Soleimani. Masoud Ibrahim, the father of Niloofar Ibrahim, a passenger on the downed plane, recounted a memory of his last call with his daughter an hour before the flight, saying he told her, 'Don't worry and just go; we didn't know everyone was gathered at [Ali Khamenei's] house and a decision had been made to down the plane.' Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabai, a lawyer representing some of the victims' families in a case pending in the Islamic Republic's judiciary, stated on the fifth anniversary of the incident, 'My clients had objections and said that the prosecutor, who was about to read the indictment, explicitly told some families: We shot it down, we did well to shoot it down.' According to the Iranian watchdog website, this lawyer emphasized the 'three days of lying' by Islamic Republic officials, denying the missile strike on the passenger plane and claiming it was a 'technical failure,' stating that 'this lying is a case of widespread dissemination of falsehoods equivalent to corruption on earth.' Alizadeh added, 'We wanted an investigation; why did officials lie for three whole days? Salami had announced that this denial was to justify senior officials who had been implicated in a premeditated plan to shoot down the plane.' He quoted 'the families' saying, 'Salami announced in the parliament that national interests necessitated this shooting. Our question was, if such a necessity existed for military officials, why are they not held accountable and only a few low-ranking individuals are blamed for this crime?' This lawyer also confirmed that the plaintiffs and their lawyers 'have never had access to the contents of the case.' Furthermore, the state-run ILNA news agency reported that Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabai, who represents the Asadi Lari family in this case, mentioned a delay of more than six months in addressing the complaints of several families of the victims of the Ukrainian airplane downing. According to this lawyer, in the initial ruling of this case, ten individuals were convicted, but the families objected to the handling of the case. However, the majority of families withdrew their complaints, and only a few families, including the Asadi Lari family, continued to pursue the matter. On the fifth anniversary of the downing of flight PS752, which was shot down by the IRGC, the victims' families gathered in Shahidshahr, holding Khamenei and senior officials of the Islamic Republic responsible for this crime. The Association of Families of the Victims of Flight PS752 emphasized in a statement on the fifth anniversary of the 'crime of shooting down the passenger plane' that they 'will not cease their pursuit of justice for a moment' and that one day the perpetrators will be condemned and punished in an independent judiciary in Iran. Flight PS752 of Ukraine International Airlines was shot down by two missiles from the IRGC less than three minutes after taking off from Tehran International Airport on January 8, 2020, killing all 176 passengers on board. After three days of denial, Iranian officials finally admitted to shooting down the plane but attributed it to 'human error.' On July 5, 2023, Canada, Sweden, Ukraine, and the UK requested the International Court of Justice to begin proceedings against the Islamic Republic regarding the downing of the Ukrainian airplane, accusing the Iranian government of violating the Montreal Convention and deliberately downing the Ukrainian passenger plane.