Iran International
Canada, Britain, Ukraine, and Sweden have filed a complaint with UN civil aviation agency against Iran on the fourth anniversary of the downing of Flight PS752.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) shot down the Ukrainian airliner shortly after it took off from Imam Khomeini International Airport near the capital Tehran on January 8, 2020. All 176 onboard the plane were killed in the incident.
The downing of the plane by two surface-to-air defense missiles, came a few hours after Iran fired missiles at US military bases in Iraq in retaliation for the US drone strike in Baghdad that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani, commander of IRGC’s extraterritorial Quds Force.
The four countries, announcing their complaint to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal, said Tehran had used “weapons against a civil aircraft in flight in breach of its international legal obligations."
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the filing was "an important step in our commitment to ensuring that the families of the victims impacted by this tragedy get the justice they deserve."
Iranian authorities for three days claimed technical issues were responsible for the crash. Subsequently and under public and international pressure, Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, the chief of IRGC air operations responsible for airspace security, attributed the downing of the airliner to “human error” of the air defense. The IRGC also alleged that the “risky behavior” of the United States had caused the incident.
Victims’ families chanting “What an agony is this injustice!” at the anniversary ceremony.
Iranian authorities have never explained the reason for not closing the country’s airspace amid such heightened military tensions and allowed flights out of the country’s biggest international airport as usual.
Some of the victims’ families and many Iranians have always alleged that the IRGC intended to use the plane as a human shield on the night of the missile attack on US bases and the downing of the plane was therefore "premeditated”.
A group of victims’ families convened at the site of the crash on Monday to commemorate their loved ones. In their speeches, they condemned the regime’s “fake trial” of those responsible for the tragedy. Some, like Fatemeh Arsalani who lost her son, daughter-in-law, and grandchild fearlessly cursed the Islamic Republic and the Revolutionary Guards.
Manzar Zarrabi who lost four of her loved ones reading the statement of the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims at the anniversary ceremony.
A source close to the families told Iran International in October 2020 that the IRGC was using threats of murder and torture to silence those among victims’ families who were contesting the official explanation of "human error" for shooting down the plane.
“Don’t you think you can frighten a person who has nothing to lose with threats of torture and death,” Touran Shamsollahi who lost her daughter-in-law and granddaughter in the crash said. She vowed to stand “to the end” beside her son, Canada-based Hamed Esmaeilion who has made many efforts to bring the Islamic Republic to justice.
The Association of Families of Flight PS752 as well as Canada, Britain, Ukraine, and Sweden had previously brought the case before the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, International Court of Justice (ICI), in the Hague.
Ukraine and Canada which had 63 citizens on the flight have always complained about Iran's uncooperativeness in investigation of the cause of the incident.
Many among the families of the victims were outraged by the light sentencing of those responsible for the tragic crash and refuted the court’s competence to prosecute the crime of downing the airliner.
Iran's judiciary sentenced the unnamed commander of the IRGC’s Tor-M1 surface-to-air missile system that shot down the plane to 13 years of which he would only be required to serve 10 years including the time he has already spent in prison. Nine others were also sentenced to from one to two years.
Mahmoud Alizadeh-Tabatabei, a lawyer who represented the families of several victims, told Didban news website Monday that the unnamed commander was the only one who was imprisoned but has been released on bail because the sentences passed on the defendants have not been finalized.
More than 130 of Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters including members of the Radwan force have been killed in skirmishes across the Israeli-Lebanese border since Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on October 7, igniting a conflict that has rippled around the region.
Wissam al-Tawil, the deputy head of a Radwan unit, and another Hezbollah fighter were killed when the car they were in was struck some 6 km (3.7 miles) from the border. There was no immediate comment from Israel.
Tawil was one of the most senior Hezbollah commanders killed in the hostilities so far.
The group circulated photographs of Tawil with Hezbollah leaders including Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Imad Mughniyeh, the group's military commander who was killed in Syria in 2008.
Another photo showed him sitting next to the late leader of the Iranian Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, who killed by a US drone strike in Baghdad four years ago.
One security source called Tawil's death "a very painful strike" in comments to Reuters. Another said, "things will flare up now."
Hezbollah says its campaign aims to support Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The hostilities between the group and Israel have largely been contained to areas near the border.
Tensions spiked higher last week when an Israeli strike killed deputy Hamas chief Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut's southern suburbs controlled by Hezbollah.
Hezbollah's secretary-general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel last week not to launch a full-scale war on Lebanon.
"Whoever thinks of war with us - in one word, he will regret it," Nasrallah said.
Mohsen Saravani, a 24-year-old law student, was accused of collecting classified information through government officials and sharing it with a Mossad agent. He was arrested in March 2022 and the execution took place mid-December after Saravani confessed under torture to espionage activities.
"This person communicated with foreign services, specifically Mossad, collecting classified information, and with participation with associates, provided documents to foreign services, including the Mossad," state media said after the execution without naming him, itself unusual. Usually, the regime makes loud examples of such cases, such as that involving Alireza Akbari. The British-Iranian dual national, a former member of the Iranian government, was executed a year ago, accused of spying in a very public display of outrage.
But this time, mystery surrounded the execution, which is one of hundreds raining down on Iran since the Women, Life, Freedom protests erupted in September 2022. IRNA said 'the accused' had handed classified information to a "Mossad officer" with the aim of "propaganda for groups and organizations opposed to the Islamic Republic".
The execution, which took place in a Zahedan jail in Sistan-Baluchestan province, came a day after Baluch militants attacked a police station in the province, killing 11 security personnel and wounding several others. The impoverished Sistan-Baluchestan province, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, has long been the scene of frequent clashes between security forces and Sunni militants.
Saravani's alleged collaboration with Mossad dates back to 2021, according to the Ministry of Intelligence.
Since the age of 18, the young IRGC-Basij member served as an adviser to Ali Osat Hashemi, the former governor of Sistan-Baluchestan province. He also had close ties with the next governor Danial Mahboubi and Ali-Asghar Mirshekar, the deputy for security affairs of the governor’s office. Saravani’s photos alongside high-ranking officials, including the supreme leader’s chief personal aide Vahid Haghanian, suggested he was very close to Ali Khamenei’s inner circle. Saravani introduced himself as a representative of Zahedan’s prosecutor general to exert influence over provincial offices.
Mandana Zanganeh Soroush, a former economic deputy in the governor’s office, was accused of providing Saravani with thousands of classified documents. Zanganeh Soroush later transferred to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, where Saravani approached her for information gathering there too. Images of chat history obtained by Iran International suggest an emotional and sexual relationship between Zanganeh Soroush and Saravani. Zanganeh Soroush, previously sentenced to eight years, had her sentence reduced to one year on appeal.
Saravani is just one of the many people whom Iran has executed over charges of espionage for Israel. Late in December, Iran executed four men in West Azarbaijan province arrested a year earlier for “collaborating with Israel” and allegedly involved in acts of sabotage, the Judiciary said. The accused were tried in secrecy and except for a brief announcement about their alleged crimes, no other details were released. Human rights monitoring groups say that the convicted prisoners had appealed their death sentence, but authorities ignored the legal process and carried out the death sentences.
The executions occurred shortly after the reported killing of Razi Mousavi, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander, in an attack attributed to Israel in the Zainabiyya neighborhood of Damascus, Syria. Some observers interpret the executions as potential retaliation by the Islamic Republic for the killing of Razi Mousavi. Mousavi played a crucial role in logistics and support for the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, being one of the six senior commanders instrumental in the survival of Bashar al-Assad's regime and the consolidation of Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran has accused Israel of carrying out several attacks on facilities linked to its nuclear program and of killing its nuclear scientists over the years. In August, Iran accused Israel of being behind "one of the largest sabotage plots" targeting its defense industry and the production of missiles. In July, the intelligence ministry said it had arrested a network of agents working for Israel before they were able to carry out sabotage in sensitive locations. In January 2021, Israel said it had broken up an Iranian spy ring that recruited Israeli women via Facebook to photograph sensitive sites. In April 2021, Tehran blamed an act of "nuclear terrorism" for a disruption of power at its Natanz uranium enrichment facility in the desert in the central province of Esfahan (Isfahan).