January 8, 2023, marks the third anniversary of the shootdown of PS752. Justice calls for worldwide demonstrations on this Sunday, in memory of the victims and in support of the ongoing uprising in Iran.
What is PS752? On January 8, 2020, Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, an international civilian passenger flight from Tehran to Kyiv, was shot down by two missiles shortly after takeoff. All 176 passengers and crew died. Iran denied its responsibility for the aircraft´s destruction at first. On January 11, Iran´s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) admitted mistakenly identifying the plane as an American cruise missile and shooting it down. There is no complete clarification of the case until today.
This happened amidst tensions between Iran and the US, due to the assassination of Major General Qasem Soleimani by the US on January 3rd, 2020. In response to the killing of Soleimani, several missiles were fired by the IRGC on American-led coalition forces in Al Asad Airbase and Erbil in Iraq.
Iranian activist, author, and dentist, Hamed Esmaeilion, who lost his wife and daughter in the downing of PS752, is one of the founders of the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims. The Association seeks justice and demands a complete clarification.
A group of four countries (Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the UK) is taking concrete action against Iran and requests “that Iran submit to arbitration to settle a dispute over its shooting down of a Ukrainian jet”. The accusation against Iran´s IRGC is the unlawful and intentional launching of two surface-to-air missiles.
Many of the victims of the downing of PS752 were citizens or residents of the above-named countries. Thus, those countries are seeking justice on behalf of the victim´s families. Iran is to hold accountable for its “multiple breaches of its international legal obligations”.