Canada, Ukraine, Sweden and the United Kingdom, united in a coalition for the victims of the crash of a Ukrainian plane shot down in 2020 in Iran, denounced on Tuesday the “sham” trials which led to the conviction of ten Iranian soldiers.
“The sham trials that took place in Tehran must not distract the world from Iran’s failure to meet its international obligations and take responsibility for its actions,” the four countries criticized in a joint statement.
On Sunday, ten Iranian servicemen were sentenced to between one and 10 years in prison for their role in the crash of the Ukrainian Boeing shot down near Tehran in January 2020.
The crash, caused by two missiles launched by the Iranian armed forces at the time on high alert for fear of an American attack, claimed the lives of 176 people, mainly Iranians and Canadians, many of them dual nationals, as well only 11 Ukrainians.
“Neither the trials nor the verdicts announced this week bring truth and justice to the families of victims”, regrets the coalition, which judges that Iranian justice has “lacked the necessary impartiality and transparency” in this case.
“The Association of Victims’ Families does not recognize the courts of the Islamic regime as legitimate courts”, also reacted on Twitter on Monday this association of relatives of the victims after the announcement of the convictions.
Last December, the coalition for the victims of the crash had asked that Tehran submit to binding arbitration to “hold Iran responsible” for the crash.
Canada, Ukraine, Sweden and the United Kingdom had relied on the 1971 Montreal Convention, which regulates offenses against civil aviation, to request this arbitration.
In early 2022, Iran said it had started compensating some of the victims’ families by paying each “a sum of $150,000”, promising to compensate the others.