Canadian court awards $ 84 million to families of Iranian plane crash victims News of Soleimani’s murder

The pre-trial trial highlights the fact that Iran crashed near Tehran in 2020 amid military tensions with the United States.

A Canadian court has awarded $ 84 million (Canadian $ 107 million) to the families of six gunmen killed by Iranian forces. Ukraine International Airlines flight near Tehran in early 2020.

Victims’ lawyer Mark Arnold handed down the verdict on Monday, vowing to go after Iranian property in Canada and abroad to get the verdict. Ontario High Court Judge Edward Belobaba handed down the verdict on December 31st.

Iranian forces fired a PS752 flight from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport on January 8, 2020, killing 176 people, including 55 Canadians and 30 permanent residents.

The Iranian government blamed the incident for “human error” and said it had confused the plane with an “enemy target”.a disastrous mistake“.

A few hours before the flight was shot down, the Iranian military fired missiles at U.S. forces in Iraq in retaliation. Assassination of Iran’s supreme general Qassem Soleimani In a U.S. strike ordered by then-President Donald Trump.

Following the accident, the countries of the victims – Canada, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Afghanistan – joined forces to promote responses and responsibilities under the auspices of the International Coordination and Response Group.

But last month, the team he expressed frustration With Iran, he accused Tehran of “no interest in complying with international law.”

The group set a January 5 deadline for Iranians to “confirm their readiness to negotiate with the Coordination Group, after which we must assume that further attempts to negotiate reparations with Iran are futile.”

In May, a Canadian court handed down a pre-trial verdict accusing Iran deliberately downward when he called the plane a “terrorist act,” he provoked an angry reaction from Tehran, calling the court’s decision “shameful.”

“Anyone knows that the Canadian court is essentially incapable of prosecuting this plane crash or potential negligence in an incident outside Canadian territory and jurisdiction,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said at the time.

In late 2020, the Iranian government announced this Allocate $ 150,000 to each of the victims ’families.

Governments are usually protected from foreign civil litigation, but a 2012 Canadian law restricted countries ’legal immunity to their“ foreign states in favor of terrorism, ”including Iran.

Last week’s ruling is likely to escalate tensions between Canada and Iran.

Canada he closed his embassy He expelled diplomats from Tehran and Iran from Ottawa in 2012, describing Iran as “the most important threat to world peace and security.” Iran responded by calling the government of then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper “extreme.”

Iran has recently accused Canada of politicizing the response to the fall of the PS752 flight.

“Canadian officials have had unreasonable interventions since day one and have tried to shed light on the natural path of this problem,” a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in December 2020.