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Iranwire – A Canadian court has ruled the downing of Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752 last January was a deliberate act of terror.
On Thursday, May 20 the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario ruled that “on the balance of probabilities” the Revolutionary Guards had deliberately shot the passenger plane out of the skies over Tehran, killing all 176 people onboard.
The case was brought against Iran by private plaintiffs from four victims’ families in Canada: Shahin Moghaddam, Mehrzad Zarei, Ali Gorji and a fourth person who is remaining anonymous for fear of reprisal.
On Thursday Justice Edward Belobaba determined that despite ongoing tensions with the United States at the time due to the killing of Ghasem Soleimani, there was no armed conflict going on in the region.
As such, he said: “The plaintiffs have established that the shooting down of Flight 752 by the defendants was an act of terrorism and constitutes ‘terrorist activity’.”
The ruling comes months after a UN report found multiple human rights violations in both the IRGC’s downing of a civilian plane, and the Islamic Republic’s attempted cover-up of the tragedy in the aftermath.
The regime concluded its final investigation earlier this year, determining that a technical fault in military hardware had been the cause of the crash. The Islamic Republic did not send a representative to the Ontario court case.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Mark Arnold, is understood to be looking into the possibility that Iranian assets such as oil tankers could be seized after compensation is determined.
The Association of Families of Flight 752 Victims has yet to publish its own response to the landmark court ruling. The full judgement can be read on the Association’s website.
