Officials' Deflection Regarding the Ukrainian Airplane Case with Claims of 'Re-examination'

Ahmadreza Pourkhaghan, head of the Judicial Organization of the Armed Forces, on Wednesday, January 19, coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the downing of the Ukrainian passenger plane over Tehran due to missiles fired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), engaged in deflection regarding the plaintiffs' statements about the obstruction by judicial officials in the handling of this case. According to ILNA news agency, this judicial official claimed during a provincial visit with reporters that the case has been referred back to the Judicial Organization of the Armed Forces for re-examination and is currently under review. Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic's secrecy, numerous contradictions, and multiple false claims by various officials of the Iranian government, including IRGC commanders, government officials, and the judiciary, have raised serious doubts about the credibility of the claims made by the Islamic Republic's officials. Yesterday, Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabai, a lawyer representing some of the victims' families from flight PS752 in a case pending in the Islamic Republic's judiciary, stated: 'My clients had objections and said that the prosecutor's representative, who wanted to read the indictment, explicitly told some families: We hit it, and we did well.' Previously, according to the Iran Watch website, Alizadeh emphasized the 'three days of lying' by Islamic Republic officials, concealing the missile strike on the passenger plane and claiming 'technical failure' as the cause of the crash, stating that 'this lying constitutes widespread dissemination of falsehoods to the extent of corruption on earth.' This lawyer added: 'We wanted an investigation; why did officials lie for three whole days? Salami had announced that this denial for several days was to justify high-ranking officials who had been implicated in a premeditated plan to shoot down the plane.' ILNA also reported yesterday that there has been a halt of more than six months in the handling of the complaints from several families of the victims of the Ukrainian plane's downing. According to this lawyer, in the initial ruling of this case, 10 people were convicted, but the families objected to the handling process. However, the majority of families withdrew their complaints, and only a few families, including the Asadi-Lari family, continued to pursue the case. The Ontario Superior Court ruled that the missile strike on the Ukrainian passenger plane by the IRGC was deliberate and terrorist. According to this ruling, a report from the then Minister of Public Safety of Canada also indicates that Iran's claim of 'human error' in the downing of this flight is incorrect. Oleksiy Danilov, the then Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, also stated that the IRGC 'deliberately' shot down the passenger plane to prevent 'increased regional tensions between Iran and the United States.' Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that the Islamic Republic's official portrayal of how the plane was downed is 'hypocritical, misleading, and superficial' and deliberately ignores important factors. Agnes Callamard, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, previously described the information released by the Islamic Republic regarding the downing of the passenger plane as 'misleading' and stated that these explanations are designed to be 'extremely confusing.' Numerous reports have been published regarding the actions of the Islamic Republic's security forces to intimidate the families of the victims of flight 752. Canada's Security and Intelligence Service has reported that there are 'credible reports' of harassment and intimidation of the families and relatives of the victims in Canada. Human Rights Watch has also previously stated that since the downing of the Ukrainian plane by the IRGC in January 2020, the families of the victims have been systematically targeted for harassment by Iranian government officials. On the fifth anniversary of the downing of flight PS752, which was carried out by IRGC missiles, the families of the victims, while present in Shahidshahr, held the Supreme Leader Khamenei and senior officials of the Islamic Republic responsible for this crime. Iranians residing in Toronto gathered at three cemeteries of the victims of the Ukrainian plane's downing, with the families' lawyer stating: 'The prosecutor said we did well to hit it.' The victims' families' association stated: 'We will not back down from seeking justice.'