Ten individuals were given jail sentences by the military court of the Islamic Republic of Iran for their actions in the downing of aircraft PS752 aboard a Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737. On April 14, 2023, the judgment was issued by Mizan News Agency, the official news agency of the Iranian judicial system. The matter was taken before the military court because, according to Ali Eftekhari, the chairman of the Iranian military court, it was complicated and had "many technical aspects." Eftekhari stated that "a number of people other than military people were to blame." Ten defendants received varied jail terms from the court.
Eftekhari said, stating that the defendants' positions ranged from Second Brigadier to Third Lieutenant. "As can be seen in the case judgement, the case contains ten defendants and the levels in the case are from the command to the system user. The head of the court emphasized that the Tor M1 surface-to-air missile operator committed two errors: he neglected to change the system's radar's sensitivity level and he neglected to check with another command centre to see if shooting down the target was appropriate. Eftekhari pointed out that although the defendant claimed there was a breakdown of contact, "the loss of communication was not confirmed," adding that he "acted on his own judgment and fired". "The diagnosis was incorrect, and this error is an individual and human error," he declared in his conclusion.
Families of the victims of Flight PS752 criticize a "sham ruling"
The verdicts of the trial were deemed "meaningless and unacceptable" by the PS752 Association, which represents the relatives of the 176 victims of the disaster. "This court introduced ten accused low-ranking officers with complete anonymity regarding their backgrounds and identities, held sessions in private, flouted the families who attended the hearings, and ultimately issued a sham ruling to end this show in keeping with their predetermined scenario without conducting any full, impartial investigation," the PS752 Association continued.
The four governments, whose nationals perished in the tragedy, received four demands from the families:
- The four parties involved must file the referral of the case to the International Court of Justice as soon as the arbitration term concludes on June 28, 2023.
- The Association's complaint to the International Criminal Court must be supported by the four impacted nations.
- It is necessary to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.
- The downing of Flight PS752 and the significant loss of Canadian citizens' lives require the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to file a criminal case and conduct an investigation.
The Ukrainian International Airlines Boeing 737-800 NextGeneration (NG) was flying the regularly scheduled PS752 flight on January 8, 2020, between Boryspil International Airport (KBP), Kyiv, Ukraine, and Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKA), Tehran, Iran. Two surface-to-air missiles shot down the plane shortly after it took off from IKA, killing all 176 aboard. Iranian, Canadian, Ukrainian, Swedish, Afghan, and British citizens were among the victims. The Islamic Republic of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization came to the conclusion that "human error" was to blame for the downing of the Boeing 737 in March 2021.