Iran: Jail terms for those behind downing of Ukraine flight

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An Iranian court docket has sentenced an air protection commander allegedly accountable for the fatal downing of a passenger airplane amid Iran-U.S. tensions a number of years in the past, a state news company reported Sunday.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard mistakenly shot down the Ukraine International Airlines flight in January 2020. The missile strike killed all 176 other folks on board and got here as Tehran and Washington teetered at the verge of collapse of battle.

The Guards commander who officers purport ordered the strike used to be sentenced to 13 years in jail, the legit judiciary news outlet mentioned.

Mizan mentioned the commander didn’t practice protocols within the moments main as much as the taking pictures down of the airplane. The commander used to be ordered to pay fines to households of sufferers, the file added.

Mizan mentioned the court docket additionally sentenced two group of workers allegedly all in favour of operating the surface-to-air missile device Tor M-1 to 1 yr in jail every.

After a long collection of hearings, the court docket sentenced a minimum of seven different group of workers and air protection officials to as much as 3 years in jail. According to Mizan, the verdicts are appealable inside 20 days.

The file didn’t determine any of the defendants through identify or additional main points.

The judiciary news company additionally mentioned Iran’s govt plans to pay $150,000 for every sufferer to their households. It didn’t elaborate on how this cash might be brought to the households.

The listening to classes have confronted world grievance since beginning in 2021. At that point, an affiliation of the sufferers’ households additionally criticized the listening to and solid doubts at the court docket’s legitimacy. The crew additionally alleged that none of the defendants have been provide at hearings.

Just hours earlier than the shootdown in January 2020, Iran had fired ballistic missiles at American bases in Iraq in retaliation for the U.S. drone strike that killed most sensible Iranian normal Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.