Iran Indicts 10 People Over Downed Ukrainian Plane - Prosecutor

Iran Indicts 10 People Over Downed Ukrainian Plane - Prosecutor

Iranian authorities have indicted ten officials over the 2020 downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane that killed 176 people, Tehran's military prosecutor Gholamabbas Torki announced on Tuesday, as he handed over the post to Nasser Seraj

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th April, 2021) Iranian authorities have indicted ten officials over the 2020 downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane that killed 176 people, Tehran's military prosecutor Gholamabbas Torki announced on Tuesday, as he handed over the post to Nasser Seraj.

"Indictments were issued for ten people who were at fault," the Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency cited him as saying.

On January 8, 2020, a Boeing 737 operated by Ukraine International Airlines crashed soon after departing from an airport in Tehran. The plane carried 176 passengers � citizens of Iran, Canada, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

There were no survivors.

Iran initially denied its involvement in the downing, but later revealed that its military had shot the plane down on accident. In January, Iran's Civil Aviation Organization published a report in which it concluded that the country's air defense forces mistook Ukraine's passenger plane for a hostile element and targeted it with two missiles. The report also provides a number of recommendations to prevent similar disasters in the future.

In response, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called the report biased and demanded further investigations. However, Iran officially concluded investigations into the case in February 2021.