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Iranwire – Canada’s foreign ministry has expressed deep concern over reports of intimidation of families fighting for truth and justice for the victims of the downing in 2020 of a Ukrainian passenger plane near Tehran.
“We call on Iran to immediately cease its campaign of harassment and intimidation of these families,” it said on the social media platform X, hours after the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims urged Canada to resolutely respond to the Iranian government’s escalating “malicious actions” against the victims’ families.
Canada is deeply concerned about new reports of intimidation of family members of the victims of Flight PS752. We call on Iran to immediately cease its campaign of harassment and intimidation of these families.— Foreign Policy CAN (@CanadaFP) November 29, 2023
After meeting with his UK counterpart David Cameron, Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said the two countries would continue to work together to “seek justice for PS752 victims.”
A pleasure to meet with UK Foreign Secretary, @David_Cameron.
Canada and the UK will continue to work together to support Ukraine, seek justice for PS752 victims, address the dire humanitarian situation in Israel and Gaza, and bolster international security. pic.twitter.com/BkLpdAGKFH— Mélanie Joly (@melaniejoly) November 29, 2023
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, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Ukraine 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.
Earlier this week, the former president and spokesperson for the association, Iranian-Canadian writer and civil activist Hamed Esmaeilion, said that Iran’s government has barred his mother from leaving the country in retaliation for his activism.
He said that the Iranian authorities stopped his mother at Tehran International Airport on November 25 and confiscated her passport, saying she was not allowed to leave the country.
On the same day, officials at the passport office told her that she and her husband were prohibited from leaving Iran for six months.
Esmaeilion lost his daughter and wife in the shooting down of the Ukrainian jet.
