Lawyer for the Victims of the Ukrainian Plane Crash Says Military Court Ruling Has Been Overturned by the Supreme Court

The lawyer for the victims of the Ukrainian plane crash announced that the ruling issued by the military court regarding this case has been overturned by the Supreme Court of the country with '12 serious objections' and the court is obliged to reconsider this case. Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabai made this announcement on Tuesday, September 5, in an interview with the news website 'Ensaaf News' and stated that after filing a complaint against the military court's ruling, it was overturned in Branch 32 of the Supreme Court. The Ukrainian flight PS752 was shot down shortly after taking off from Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran on January 8, 2020, by at least two missiles fired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), resulting in the deaths of all 176 passengers on board. Iranian officials, after several days of concealment and contradictory statements about the incident, eventually admitted that the IRGC's air defense shot down the passenger plane, but claimed that the reason for the shooting was 'human error.' Ukraine, Canada, and other countries that lost their citizens in this incident claim that the Iranian government is covering up the main reasons behind this event. Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabai further stated that 'some objections of the Supreme Court elevate the charges against the main defendants to the level of moharebeh (waging war against God).' He reiterated that the establishment of the defense system between two airports and the lack of notification to the Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters as the coordinating force is considered 'moharebeh.' He emphasized that 'whoever gave this order has committed a serious offense; which is at the level of moharebeh.' Alizadeh Tabatabai pointed out that some families of the victims have lost hope for a fair trial within the country and stressed that 'the only competent authority to address this case is the domestic courts.' He added that foreign courts do not have access to the case documents and can only take action in financial matters. Mohsen Asadi Lari, the father of Mohammad Hossein and Zeinab, two of the victims of this flight, also stated in an interview with Ensaaf News that the objections of the Supreme Court are 'substantive' and not procedural, and that all matters must be reconsidered. He mentioned that 'I have provided more than fifty issues regarding this case to senior officials of the country, which I do not wish to detail at the moment.' Zahra Majd, the mother of these two deceased passengers, also stated that 'our children fell victim to a disaster whose dimensions are still unclear, but eventually the case of what happened that night will be clarified. Domestic courts can address the criminal issue.' Three years ago, Asadi Lari and Majd had also mentioned in an interview with Shargh newspaper, quoting Hossein Salami, the commander of the IRGC, that the shootings were intentional. According to them, Salami had said: 'You know if these people were not there, what kind of war would it have been? ... If this incident had not happened, 10 million people would have been killed, and this incident prevented that war from happening?' In the trial regarding the downing of the Ukrainian plane, there were ten defendants present, but Majd had stated at that time that 'the main defendants are others. They present ten defendants in front of the court who have not even been identified. We do not even know if the person sitting there, who is said to be the air defense operator, is really him.' In the initial ruling issued after three years, the first defendant was sentenced to three years in prison for 'participation' in the 'quasi-intentional murder of the passengers.' He was also sentenced to an additional ten years in prison for 'revoking the issued order and considering the extent of the effects and consequences of this action.' The court considered the first defendant's behavior as 'resulting from ignorance of the subject and a mistaken assumption about the discovered target.' The second and third defendants were sentenced to one year in prison, while the fourth and fifth defendants were sentenced to three years in prison. The names of these individuals and their organizational ranks have not been disclosed by the military court. After the military court's ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court, the lawyer expressed hope that the court would once again address the ambiguities of this case fairly and justly, without considering 'political and security considerations.' Iranian officials have not only failed to provide a clear explanation regarding the downing of the Ukrainian passenger plane but have also reportedly intimidated the families of the victims of flight 752. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has stated that there are 'credible reports' of harassment and intimidation of the families and relatives of the victims in Canada. Human Rights Watch also announced that since the downing of the Ukrainian plane by the IRGC, the families of the victims have been systematically targeted for harassment by Iranian government officials.