A court in Ontario has awarded $C107 million ($NZ123m), plus interest, to the families of six people who died when the Iranian Revolutionary Guards downed a Ukraine International Airlines plane near Tehran two years ago.
A vigil in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, on the first anniversary of the downing of the Ukraine flight which killed all 176 people on board, including 55 Canadians and 35 permanent residents. Photo: AFP
The family members awarded compensation by Ontario's Superior Court of Justice lost spouses, siblings, children, nieces and nephews.
Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 was hit by two missiles after taking off. Iran has said it mistook the aircraft for a US missile.
All 176 people on board died.
They included 55 Canadians and 35 permanent residents of Canada. The relatives had filed a civil lawsuit against Iran and other officials who they say were to blame for the incident.
It was not immediately clear how the money would be collected from Iran. The relatives' lawyer, Mark Arnold, said his team would look to seize Iranian assets in Canada and abroad, which could include oil tankers.
This is the first time that compensation has been awarded to the families of the victims, CBC reported, adding that Iran did not defend itself in court.
The case was filed by Shahin Moghaddam, Mehrzad Zarei and Ali Gorji. Fearing reprisals from Iran, some of the other plaintiffs withheld their names, CBC News reported earlier.
A special Canadian forensic team had produced a report in mid-2021 that accused Iran of incompetence and recklessness over the downing of the Ukrainian passenger plane. Iran criticised the report as being "highly politicised".
The report found that while the shooting down of Ukrainian International Airlines flight 752 had not been premeditated, it did not absolve Iranian officials of responsibility for the incident.
A woman lays flowers at a park in Kiev for the victims of crash flight 752. Photo: AFP
Iranian authorities initially denied responsibility for the incident, which happened on 8 January 2020. But as evidence mounted, the Revolutionary Guards' Aerospace Force said an air defence unit had mistaken the Boeing 737-800 for a US missile.
At the time, Iran was on edge about possible attacks after it fired missiles at Iraqi bases housing US forces in retaliation for the killing days before of its most powerful military commander, Qassem Soleimani, in a US missile strike at Baghdad airport.
-BBC / Reuters