Ten members of the Iranian armed forces have been sentenced to prison for their involvement in the downing of a Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) jet, which resulted in the death of all 176 people on board. According to a report on the judiciary’s Mizan Online website on Sunday, a commander received a 10-year sentence, while the other nine received sentences ranging from one to three years.
This verdict marks the end of the trial that began in November 2021 for the 10 military personnel connected to the Ukrainian jet’s downing.
In January 2020, UIA flight PS752 was shot down by two missiles shortly after takeoff from Tehran, resulting in the deaths of mostly Iranians and Canadians. Initially, Tehran claimed that the Kyiv-bound passenger plane had crashed, and it was not until three days later that the Iranian armed forces admitted to downing the plane ‘by mistake.’
The Iranian air defense had claimed that they accidentally downed the Boeing 737 after mistaking it for an incoming missile. At the time, tensions between Iran and the United States were high, and the Iranian forces were anticipating a US counterattack after Tehran fired missiles at a military base in Iraq used by American forces.
However, the ‘human error’ claims made by the Islamic Republic have been questioned by Ukraine, Canada, and various organizations and observers.
A report by the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization blamed the incident on the misalignment of a radar system and a lack of communication between the air defense operator and his commanders.
However, Ukraine and Canada have rejected these claims. Citizens of Afghanistan, Britain, Canada, Germany, Iran, Sweden, and Ukraine were among those killed in the crash.
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