On the fifth anniversary of the downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 by two missiles fired by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Canadian government issued a statement detailing its efforts to hold Iran accountable and called on the Iranian regime to take full responsibility for its actions.
The statement noted that among the 176 victims of the downing, 55 were Canadian citizens and 30 were permanent residents of Canada. It emphasized that Canada, along with Sweden, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom—its three partners in the International Coordination and Response Group—continues to demand accountability from the Iranian regime, including compensation for the victims’ families.
Details of the Downing of Flight PS752
Flight PS752 was shot down on January 8, 2020, by two IRGC missiles in the early hours of the same day that the Iranian regime launched missile strikes on Ain al-Asad Airbase in Iraq, in what it claimed was retaliation for the killing of Qasem Soleimani.
According to evidence provided by the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims and a ruling by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on June 10, 2024, it has been repeatedly asserted that the downing of the Ukrainian aircraft was not the result of an “human error” by the IRGC but rather a deliberate act, carried out despite knowledge that the aircraft was a civilian flight.
The Canadian government, in its statement outlining the Coordination Group’s efforts to hold Iran accountable, referenced the ongoing case against Iran at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for violating the Chicago Convention. The statement added that this process is still progressing, with further steps expected to be taken early this year.
On Tuesday, the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims issued a statement emphasizing the IRGC’s role in the deliberate killing of 176 passengers, calling for truth and justice in legal proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement marking the anniversary of the tragedy, highlighting Iran’s use of weapons against a civilian aircraft in flight, failure to take measures to prevent the downing, lack of transparent and impartial investigations into the incident, and refusal to prosecute those responsible, as violations of international law.
