Facing fierce criticism, Iran says it has charged 10 individuals involved in the downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet, once again refusing to identify the responsible for the deadly incident that claimed 176 lives in early 2020.
“The indictment of the case of the Ukrainian plane was also issued and a serious and accurate investigation was carried out and indictments were issued for 10 people who were at fault,” as Iran’s news agency Mizan quoted military prosecutor Gholamabbas Torki as saying on April 6.
According to reports, the official did not elaborate on the issue.
Iran admitted its guilt in the deadly incident in the sky over Tehran on Jan. 8, 2020, after three days in denial. The country’s leadership publicly apologized for the crash and vowed to allocate compensations to the victims’ families.
Nonetheless, what followed was repeatedly described by Ukrainian diplomats as Iran’s attempts to drag out the settlement process and vindicate high-ranking military officials responsible for the complete chain of decisions leading to the tragedy.
Earlier, on March 17, Iran published a final report laying the blame on an unidentified Tor-M1 air defense system operator who mistook the passenger jet for a hostile American target. The
Ukraine once again decried the report, accusing Tehran of trying “to escape responsibility and find a scapegoat.” According to the Ukrainian party to the talks, those responsible may end up facing up to 3 years in jail for the massive loss of lives.
In a recent interview with the Kyiv Post, Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Ministry Dmytro Kuleba demanded that the investigation be continued and added that Ukraine and other nations involved were considering measures “to create troubles for Iran and motivate it to take an honest stance.”
The government of Canada, which had lost 57 of its nationals in the incident, also attacked the report, saying on March 17 that it “has no hard facts or evidence” and “makes no attempt to answer critical questions about what truly happened.”
