Downed Ukrainian jet families struggle to hold Iran accountable

Monday marked the fourth anniversary of the downing of a Ukraine international flight by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a tragedy that killed all 176 passengers on board, among them 15 children. 

Families of many of the victims gathered at a memorial site outside the capital, Tehran, to mourn and renew their call for justice while they were surrounded by plain-clothes security agents, according to some participants writing about the event on their social media accounts. Meanwhile, Canada and international partners filed a lawsuit with a United Nations council against Iran on the anniversary.

On Jan. 8, 2020, Kyiv-bound Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 was shot down three minutes after takeoff from Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport. In a state of denial for three days, Iranian officials only admitted that the plane had been shot with two missiles "erroneously" after mounting evidence and reports rejected Tehran's initial claims about engine failure. The strike occurred at the height of tensions between Tehran and Washington, when the IRGC targeted two air bases hosting American forces in neighboring Iraq in retaliation for the US killing of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.  

At the commemoration ceremony, the families signed a petition for justice and read aloud a communique issued by the Association of the Families of Flight PS752 Victims. "We continue to fight, and we shall never forget the perpetrators of crimes, nor shall we ever forgive," the statement read. The association has long argued that the Iranian side has no evidence to prove the mistaken nature of the missile attack and that the plane was shot down by prior planning and intention, as Tehran was seeking to thwart a possible US response to the attack on the air bases.