Iran’s Vice President for Legal Affairs Mohammad Dehghan reacted to the ruling issued by the Canadian court ruling over Flight PS752 case.
The verdict issued by the Canadian court regarding the Ukrainian plane was fair, Dehghan said on Wednesday while answering questions raised by reporters on the sidelines of the cabinet session.
“This heartbreaking incident did not benefit the country and it was just a mistake. We welcome the vote issued in Canada.”
On Tuesday, The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled that Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) was negligent in its operation of Flight PS752 and is solely responsible for compensating the families of the victims killed when the flight was accidentally downed by Iran’s military.
The court found that UIA failed to properly assess the risks of operating the flight out of Tehran at a time when tensions between Iran and the United States were rapidly escalating. The court heard evidence that UIA had been aware of the heightened tensions, including the fact that Iran had previously shot down a US drone and that US forces had assassinated a top Iranian general just days before the downing of Flight PS752.
Despite being aware of these risks, the court found that UIA failed to take reasonable steps to mitigate them. The court heard evidence that UIA had considered rerouting or canceling the flight but ultimately decided to operate it as scheduled.
The Ukrainian airplane carrying 176 people crashed on January 8, 2020, shortly after takeoff from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport, killing all onboard.
The incident happened at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and the United States following the assassination of anti-terror commander Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Shortly after the incident, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that “human error” had led to the plane being shot down with two ground-to-air missiles.