Families of Flight PS752 victims call for war crimes probe

Lawyers representing families who lost loved ones in the destruction of Flight PS752 say they put forward a submission Wednesday calling on the International Criminal Court to investigate the case as a possible war crime or crime against humanity.

The families say it's taking too long for Canada to pursue justice and are taking matters into their own hands.

"We have no indication of a roadmap to justice or a timeline of action from the affected countries, especially Canada," said Hamed Esmaeilion, spokesperson for the association representing the families. His wife and nine-year-old daughter died onboard the flight.

"The affected countries, they have acted with a glacial pace that has been marred by bureaucracy and a wishful thinking attitude toward a meaningful negotiation with the Islamic Republic of Iran."

The coalition of countries that lost citizens on the plane — which includes Canada — abandoned its efforts to negotiate reparations with Iran in January after being repeatedly stonewalled.  Ever since, the coalition said it has been focused on taking action "in accordance with international law."

The families are now asking that the Canadian government support its request to the International Criminal Court for a review of all available evidence with the aim of prosecuting those responsible.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp shot down the Ukrainian commercial plane with two surface-to-air missiles in January 2020, killing all 176 people onboard, including 55 Canadians and 30 permanent residents.

Iran originally denied destroying the flight. After evidence contradicting Iran's claim accumulated worldwide, Iranian officials admitted their military "mistakenly" shot down the passenger plane.

The Canadian government launched its own forensic probe rather than a criminal investigation. Last year, that probe concluded the government does not have evidence of its own proving the catastrophe was "premeditated." But Canada did find that Iran was fully responsible for the deaths of everyone aboard the aircraft, as well as failing to keep the airspace safe and notifying airlines of the risks.

Unsatisfied with that finding, victims' families did their own research. They hired a former Toronto police detective, got hold of audio recordings of Iranian officials and consulted with military experts.

In a rare move, the families released their own "fact-finding" report last year that alleged Iran deliberately kept its airspace open to use civilian air passengers as human shields against a possible American attack.

The families' submission to the International Criminal Court (ICC) argues that the highest levels of the Iranian government decided to keep the airspace open over Tehran without giving any warning to commercial airlines about intense military activity underway.

Hours before Flight 752 was destroyed, the Islamic Republic of Iran targeted a U.S. base in Iraq in retaliation for the recent killing of Iranian General  Qassem Soleimani.

The families' lawyers argue the perpetrators in the Iranian government and the IRGC committed war crimes, including "wilful killing, intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population or civilian objects … as well as the crimes against humanity of murder and 'other inhumane acts.'"