Iran Taken to UN Court over Downed Passenger Jet

Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom have taken the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN’s top court in their bid to hold Tehran accountable for the 2020 downing of a Ukrainian airliner by Iranian forces.

The case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague says the Islamic Republic “violated a series of obligations” under a 1971 multilateral treaty on threats to civil aviation by shooting down Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 after take-off from the Iranian capital on January 8, 2020.

Iranian officials say the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accidentally shot down the Boeing 737-800 jet and blamed a “human error” in operating a surface-to-air defense system.

Most of the 176 people killed in the tragedy were citizens or permanent residents from Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the UK. These countries created a coordination group – the International Coordination and Response Group for the victims of Flight PS752 – to seek accountability. 

The group’s filing at the ICJ asked the court to “order full reparation for all injury caused” and to make Iran pay “full compensation to the applicants for the material and moral damages suffered by the victims and their families.”

Tehran should also return the belongings of the victims and publicly acknowledge its “internationally wrongful acts.”

Last month, Tehran filed a case at the ICJ against Canada, accusing it of breaching its state immunity in allowing civil damages cases against the Islamic Republic for alleged terrorist acts to be filed in Canadian courts.