Families of Flight PS752 Victims Denounce Intimidation Tactics from Iran Government

An association fighting for truth and justice for the victims of the downing in 2020 of a Ukrainian passenger plane near Tehran has urged Canada to resolutely respond to the Iranian government’s escalating “malicious actions” against the victims’ families.

Flight PS752 was traveling from Tehran to Kyiv on January 8, 2020, when it was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), amid heightened tensions with the United States.

All 176 passengers and crew were killed, including dozens of Canadian citizens and others with ties to Canada.

In June, Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom took the Islamic Republic to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague in their bid to hold Tehran accountable for the tragedy.

After the referral of the case to the ICJ, the Iranian authorities targeted the families of the victims with “threats, intimidation, assault, persecution, confiscation of travel documents, and summons before the nefarious revolutionary courts,” the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims said in a statement on November 29.

The association asked the Canadian government to “initiate the provisional measures process in the case before the ICJ…based on the Islamic Regime’s blatant violation of the families’ rights.”

It also called on Canada to include “the full and complete roster of the IRGC” on the list of terrorist organizations “without further delay” and to “immediately expel all Islamic Regime operatives, officials, and their families operating within Canada.”