Iran demands in court to annul ICAO council decision regarding UIA plane crash in 2020
Iran has filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice and demands to annul the decision of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) regarding the plane crash of the Boeing 737-800 NG of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA), flight PS752, in 2020.
"The present Application constitutes an appeal against the decision rendered by the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization on 17 March 2025 and formally notified to Iran on 11 April 2025, in proceedings commenced jointly by Canada, the Kingdom of Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland against the Islamic Republic of Iran on 8 January 2024 pursuant to Article 84 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, Chicago, 7 December 1944. The proceeedings before the ICAO Council concern a disagreement relating to the interpretation and application of the Chicago Convention with respect to the erroneous shooting down of a civil aircraft in flight – Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 by Iran’s military on 8 January 2020," the court's press service said.
The court notes that with this decision, the ICAO Council rejected what it called Iran's "preliminary objection" to its competence to consider the application submitted to it regarding the Chicago Convention. In fact, Iran raised two separate and distinct objections in its previous objections filed in 2024. Iran asks the court to recognize that the decision "prejudiced in a fundamental way the requirements of a fair and just procedure because it wrongly treated Iran’s two separate and distinct objections as if there was only a single 'preliminary objection' to be voted on." However, Iran reserves the right to supplement or amend its appeal.
As reported, on January 8, 2020, a Boeing 737-800 passenger plane of the UIA airline, which was supposed to perform flight PS752 on the Tehran-Kyiv route, was shot down in the area of Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran immediately after takeoff. There were 167 passengers and nine crew members on board. All of them died. Among the dead were 11 citizens of Ukraine (including nine crew members), 82 citizens of Iran, 63 citizens of Canada, ten citizens of Sweden, four citizens of Afghanistan, and three citizens of Germany and Great Britain.
On January 11, the Iranian authorities admitted that the Boeing was mistakenly shot down by the Iranian military. Later, commander of the aerospace forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Amir Ali Hajizadeh stated that he takes full responsibility for the crash of the Ukrainian plane.
In 2023, an Iranian court sentenced ten Iranian military personnel for the downing of Ukrainian passenger plane flight PS752. One of the commanders was sentenced to ten years in prison, and nine others to from one to three years in prison.
In contrast, the International Group for the Coordination of Assistance to the Victims of Flight PS752, consisting of Ukraine, Canada, Sweden and the United Kingdom, called the trials in the case of the plane crash a sham and that they should not distract the world's attention from Iran's failure to fulfill its international obligations and evasion of responsibility for its actions. "Neither the trials nor the verdicts announced this week have brought truth or justice to the families of the victims," the group said.
In January 2024, the International Group initiated proceedings within the ICAO Council against Iran for its violation of the 1944 Convention on International Civil Aviation. The ICAO Council ruled in favor of Ukraine, Canada, Sweden and the United Kingdom and referred the case to consideration on the merits, despite Iran's attempt to challenge the ICAO Council's jurisdiction over the complaint about the downing of the civilian airliner.
In October 2024, the Coordination Group presented a Memorandum in the context of the consideration of the case of the downing of PS752 at the International Court of Justice of the United Nations. Ukraine, Canada, Sweden and the United Kingdom supported this key document in the case with irrefutable evidence of Iran’s violation of the 1971 Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation.