TEHRAN (National Times) – Iran has begun paying compensation to families of those killed when it shot down a Ukrainian airliner two years ago, authorities said on Friday.<\/p>\n
“The transport ministry has made transfers to a certain number of (victims ) families,” the foreign ministry said in a statement marking the anniversary of the tragedy.<\/p>\n
Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 was shot down shortly after take-off from Tehran on January 8, 2020, killing all 176 people aboard, most of them Iranians and Canadians, including many dual nationals.<\/p>\n
Three days later, the Iranian armed forces admitted to downing the Kyiv-bound plane “by mistake.”<\/p>\n
Arash Khodaei, a vice president of Iran s Civil Aviation Organisation, said that “the sum of $150,000 has been transferred” to some families, while “the process has begun” for others.<\/p>\n
The payment “does not infringe upon (their) right to take legal action,” state news agency IRNA quoted him as saying.<\/p>\n
In 2020, Iran offered to pay “$150,000 or the equivalent in euros” to each of the victims families.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian and Canadian officials strongly criticised the announcement, saying compensation should not be settled through unilateral declarations.<\/p>\n
A Canadian court awarded more than $80 million in compensation to the families of six of the victims in a decision made public Monday.<\/p>\n
It was unclear how the money would be collected but Ontario Superior Court Judge Edward Belobaba said “some level” of enforcement may be possible.<\/p>\n
Iran s judiciary said in November that a trial had opened in Tehran for 10 military members in connection with the jet s downing.<\/p>\n
Tensions between Iran and the United States were soaring at the time of the incident.<\/p>\n
Iranian air defences were on high alert for a US counterattack after Tehran fired missiles at a military base in Iraq that was used by US forces.<\/p>\n
Those missiles came in response to the killing of General Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike near Baghdad s international airport. Soleimani headed the foreign operations arm of Iran s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.<\/p>\n
Over the past week Tehran and its Middle East allies have held commemorations marking the second anniversary of Soleimani s assassination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TEHRAN (National Times) – Iran has begun paying compensation to families of those killed when it shot down a Ukrainian airliner two years ago, authorities said on Friday. “The transport ministry has made transfers to a certain number of (victims ) families,” the foreign ministry said in a statement marking the anniversary of the tragedy. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n