Iran charges 10 in downing of passenger jet
April 6, 2021
An Iranian military court has brought charges against 10 officers for the shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane in January, 2020, a prosecutor said on Tuesday.
The Ukraine International Airlines flight was accidentally taken down by Iran's Revolutionary Guard shortly after taking off from Tehran, resulting in the death of all 176 on board.
Shot down amid heightened tensions with US
"Indictments have been issued for 10 officials involved in the crash of the Ukrainian plane... and necessary decisions will be taken in court," Gholam Abbas Torki, the outgoing military prosecutor for Tehran province, was quoted as saying by Iran's semiofficial ISNA news agency.
The victims from the crash were mainly Ukrainian and Iranian, though Canadian, Afghan, British and Swedish nationals also perished.
Tehran later said the incident was a "disastrous mistake" by its forces at a time when they were on high alert, days after a US drone strike killed Qassem Soleimani, a leading Iranian general, and just hours after retaliatory Iranian strikes on US facilities in Iraq.
Tehran report blames 'human error'
In a 285-page final assessment of the crash, issued last month, Iran said "human error" was to blame and agreed to pay each victim's family $150,000 (€126,500) in compensation.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has repeatedly called for those responsible to be held to account by means of a trial.
The Iranian leadership, though, only admitted responsibility after initial denials, which led to anti-government protests, as citizens said there had been an attempt at a cover-up.
jsi/msh (AP, dpa, Reuters)