TEHRAN- The Supreme Court of Canada has rejected an appeal by the families of Flight PS752 victims seeking to confiscate Iranian state property and bank assets held in Canada.
The victims' families had requested the seizure of Iranian government and banking assets to secure compensation. In 2021, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice claimed that Iran had intentionally shot down the Ukrainian aircraft, awarding nearly $250 million in compensation to nine families representing 14 victims.
Despite this ruling, the federal government maintained that under international law, Canadian courts do not have the authority to allow the seizure of Iranian assets. An Ontario Superior Court justice concurred, citing diplomatic immunity protections for Iranian property under Canadian law.
Nasser Kananni, spokesperson for Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated that Iran has made extensive efforts within national and international legal frameworks to address the pain of the victims' families.
He emphasized that Iran has acted responsibly from the outset, while accusing some countries of politicizing the tragedy to exert pressure on Iran.
Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 was mistakenly downed by the Iranian military on January 8, 2020, amid heightened tensions with the United States. Some passengers on board held Canadian citizenship, exacerbating tensions between Iran and Canada.
Ever since the Ukrainian passenger plane was mistakenly shot down by Iranian military forces in a highly charged confrontational atmosphere between Tehran and Washington in early 2020, relations between Iran and Canada have been constantly worsening as large swaths of passengers aboard that plane were holding Canadian citizenship.
Iran announced that it accidentally shot down the Ukrainian plane a few days after the incident, forming an investigation team that worked hand in glove with several concerned countries to get to the bottom of what happened on that tense night. The investigation team concluded that the plane was brought down due to a human error, prompting the Iranian government to offer compensation sums much more than what is usually being paid to families of victims of similar incidents, according to Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Mohsen Baharvand.
In a lengthy interview with the Tehran Times, Iranian then-Deputy Foreign Minister Mohsen Baharvand said the usual compensation sum for victims of aviation accidents is something around $20,000 but Iran offered each victim of the Ukrainian plane, regardless of their age, gender, or nationality, a lump sum of $150,0000. Baharvad noted that some of the victims’ families have already received their share of compensation.
Iran also cooperated with Ukraine, a country that owns the crashed plane, to investigate the issue. Canada, as the advisor of Ukraine in this case, also played a part in the investigation. But all this seems to be of no avail in terms of getting Canada to respect Iran’s independent investigation.
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