WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th July, 2023) Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom have collectively filed a lawsuit against Iran at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the 2020 downing of the Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752, according to a joint statement.
"Iran failed to respond to our request for arbitration sent on December 28, 2022. As a result, this week in The Hague we have jointly filed an application with the International Court of Justice instituting proceedings against Iran in relation to their breaches of the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation of 1971," the statement said.
The application accuses Iran of having failed to prevent the destruction of the plane by its armed forces and to establish an impartial and transparent criminal investigation and prosecution in accordance with international norms, the statement added.
On January 8, 2020, flight PS752 crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran's international airport. It claimed the lives of all 167 passengers on board the airplane � mostly Canadian and Iranian citizens � and nine Ukrainian crew members.
The Iranian government admitted that the plane had been mistakenly shot down by its armed forces, who mistook it for a hostile cruise missile. It happened as air defenses were active following strikes on a US military base in Iraq in retaliation for the US killing of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.
