Suspension of Court Regarding the Shooting Down of Flight PS752; Families on the Fifth Anniversary: The Decision Was Made in the 'Bait'

On the fifth anniversary of the downing of flight PS752, which was shot down by the Revolutionary Guards' missiles, the families of the victims gathered in Shahidshahr and held Supreme Leader Khamenei and senior officials of the Islamic Republic responsible for this crime. In a video obtained by Voice of America, Massoud Ebrahimi, the father of Niloufar Ebrahimi, who was killed along with her husband Saeed Tahmasebi on flight 752, stated that the decision to down the plane was made in the 'Bait'. Also, Manzar Zarabi, who lost four family members in the downing of flight PS752, said: 'We will not allow the blood of the innocent to be forgotten. This was a systematic crime, not an accident.' Meanwhile, Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabai, the lawyer for the Asadi Lari family, reported a delay of over six months in the handling of the complaints filed by several families of the victims of the Ukrainian plane's downing. According to the government news agency ILNA, this lawyer announced that in the initial ruling of this case, 10 people were convicted, but the families protested 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 case. Alizadeh Tabatabai added: 'The case went to the Supreme Court due to our objection, and the court found 12 serious flaws in the ruling. These flaws led to the complete annulment of the initial ruling, and the case was returned to the military court to rectify these issues and issue a new ruling. However, the case has been pending in court for over six months, and no proceedings have begun.' This lawyer emphasized that the court must investigate the misconduct of senior officials, stating: 'The issues we raised included the responsibility of officials higher than the 10 individuals who were convicted. The court accepted that these officials also acted contrary to regulations during the emergency, and these matters must be examined.' He also explained that currently, Military Court One, Branch Two, is responsible for handling this case, and even if only one family remains as a plaintiff, the court is obliged to continue proceedings. He stressed that criminal claims in this case can only be examined in Iran, and the families' goal is to identify and prosecute the main culprits, not to seek compensation. Alizadeh Tabatabai pointed out that 'no notifications or summons have been issued so far' and added that 'the court has stated that due to workload and changes among judges, the proceedings have been delayed.' Among the issues that Alizadeh previously mentioned and the Supreme Court emphasized is the delay in providing the exact location of the systems to the air defense headquarters. Alizadeh Tabatabai stated that according to a report from the General Staff of the Armed Forces, one of the accused, who holds a high rank, failed to inform the SOC about the deployment of the system at the location, which constituted a violation of regulations and instructions. This lawyer emphasized that violating regulations during a red alert is equivalent to 'waging war.' The lawyer for the 'Ukrainian airplane' case stated: 'A defensive system was deployed in a position, and they did not inform the air defense headquarters, which coordinates the entire armed forces' defense, and this is a violation of regulations.' According to this lawyer's statements, it has been revealed during this case that the highest-ranking air defense official in Tehran deployed this system without coordinating with the integrated air defense headquarters and, contrary to his claims, did not provide permission for this action. According to Alizadeh Tabatabai, objections were also raised against the decisions to drop charges, and it was returned to the prosecutor's office, but it is unclear what decision was made regarding it. Flight PS752 of Ukraine International Airlines was shot down by two missiles from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps less than three minutes after taking off from Tehran International Airport on January 8, 2020, killing all 176 passengers on board. Iranian officials initially denied the missile strike for three days before finally admitting to it, attributing it to 'human error.' On July 4, 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. These countries accused the Iranian government of violating the Montreal Convention and intentionally downing the Ukrainian passenger plane.