Recovery workers at the site of a Ukraine passenger jet crash near Tehran, Iran, January 8, 2020
The Iranian regime has finally punished 10 troops over the January 8, 2020 downing of a Ukrainian civilian jet that killed 176 passengers and crew.
The Iranian judiciary said a military court punished a commander with a 10-year sentence for having “fired two missiles contrary to orders” and without obtaining authorization. He was also given a three-year term for being an “accessory to semi-intentional murder”.
The officer will serve a maximum of 10 years and must pay compensation to families of victims, the judiciary said.
“Given the extent of the effects and consequences of this action, the main defendant was sentenced to the maximum penalty,” posted the judiciary’s website Mizan Online.
Two personnel who were operating the missile system each received one-year sentences. Other officials in Tehran’s air defense control and the aerospace division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were given sentences ranging from one to three years.
None of the defendants were named.
The news of the sentencing was the first time that regime officials said troops “defied orders”, rather than acting on their own because no orders had been issued.
The judiciary said the case’s 20 hearings involved 117 plaintiffs, 55 of whom testified in court and were represented by 20 attorneys.
A Shifting Regime Narrative
The news is the latest in a changing narrative by the Iranian regime since the shootdown.
The incident occurred five days after the US assassinated Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, in a drone strike outside Baghdad International Airport. Hours before the downing, Iran fired rockets on Iraqi base with American personnel.
An anti-aircraft battery fired two missiles at Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, soon after it took off from Imam Khomeini Airport outside Tehran en route to Canada.
Fragments from the exploding missiles immediately downed the jet, killing all aboard. More than 100 passengers were Iranian citizens, some of whom held dual nationality.
For more than two days the Iranian military did not inform civilian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani, of its responsibility for the shootdown. Iranian officials initially blamed the crash on “catastrophic engine failure”, and debris was moved from the crash site before international inspectors arrived.
In December 2020, Iran’s Cabinet declared that it had allocated $150,000 for relatives of each victim. However, there is no indication that payments have been made, and some families have refused to accept any money.
Instead, Canadian and international bodies have pursued a formal attribution of responsibility. In June 2021, In June, Canadian experts concluded that Tehran was “fully responsible” because of the “incompetence, recklessness, and wanton disregard for human life” of Iranian officials.
The specialists found that the anti-aircraft fire was not “premeditated” or ordered by Iranian authorities, as a soldier “likely acted on his own”. However, they noted that Iranian authorities did not close airspace or notify airlines, and that after the shootdown, the site was bulldozed and access was blocked to the site, evidence, and witnesses.
In January 2022, on the second anniversary of the killings, Canada, Sweden, Ukraine, and the UK have warned Iran of legal action as Iran continues to stall over reparations.
“The Coordination Group’s patience is wearing thin,” the quartet said, adding that they will “have to seriously consider other actions to resolve this matter within the framework of international law”.
Days later, a Canadian court awarded C$107 million ($83.94 million), plus interest, to the families of six slain passengers.
See also Multinational Legal Action v. Iran Over Downing of Ukraine Passenger Jet
Interesting points in Canadian report on the downing of the aircraft: https://www.international.gc.ca/gac-amc/assets/pdfs/publications/flight-vol-ps752/factual_analysis-analyse_faits-en.pdf
“The Forensic Team assessed it is likely the SAM operator failed to align the direction indication system of the SAM unit properly or correct the misalignment over the six hours the unit was deployed and operational.,,,Information available to the Forensic Team, including the SAM unit’s technical specifications, is consistent with a misalignment. Based on expert analysis of this type of weapon, such a misalignment would have resulted in the inaccurate representation of potential hostile threats on the SAM operator’s radar……While the act of shooting the missiles was a deliberate and intended action, the information available to the Forensic Team indicates the IRGC SAM unit operator likely misidentified Flight PS752 as a hostile target.”
“In its description of events, Iran suggests a communications outage between the SAM operator and his command and control occurred and contributed to errors in decision making. According to the Forensic Team’s assessment, if disruptions to these communications occurred at any point, there is no evidence that “jamming” or electronic warfare were the cause. Iranian military officials have suggested that such a communication’s outage could potentially be attributable to the saturation or overload of command and control systems. Either communications were not coming through due to system overload (e.g. insufficient bandwidth) or the workload was too high for the SAM unit’s immediate command and control to process information as it arrived. This is consistent with the Forensic Team’s assessment.”
“Military officials within elements of the IRGC – including senior officers – almost certainly knew immediately that Iran was responsible for firing the missiles that brought down Flight PS752. It is unknown, however, who among civilian officials and senior leadership was aware of this fact, as well as when and how the information was managed. The Forensic Team cannot confirm media reports claiming that President Rouhani himself was informed only two days later (on January 10, 2020) by military officials. Brigadier General Hajizadeh did concede at a public press conference that he had been informed that a target had been hit over Tehran but claimed he “had no permission to say anything to anyone” including to civilian officials until the situation was assessed.”
Iranians truly oppose America: https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/483586/Iranians-truly-oppose-America
“The Gallup polling company published the result of its poll on April 7 on the eve of the anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq twenty years ago, which Washington justified on democratization grounds. The poll, conducted in 2022 in 13 Muslim countries, centers on how Muslims in these countries view U.S. commitments to democracy, self-determination, and economic improvement. An overwhelming majority of respondents called into question U.S. commitments to the three categories. And in all the categories, Iranians stand atop in terms of distrusting the United States. Only 9% percent of Iranian respondents said they trust the U.S. commitment to democracy while 81% of them said the U.S. is not serious about democracy.”
The survey results are subject to interpretation. Some might claim that Iranians actually distrust the U.S because it does not do enough to support democratic change and not because its intentions have nothing to do with fostering democracy and economic prosperity. It may even be a bit of both.
Other surveys, such as those conducted by Iranpoll, show that 85% of Iranians oppose the U.S Government and its policies: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5525d831e4b09596848428f2/t/62fa5e9d39a27e00b2cd0383/1660575390001/2022-July-IranPoll-CISSM+-+Trend+Tables+as+Released.pdf
Four Countries Slam Iran’s ‘Sham’ Trials Over Downed Airliner
https://www.iranintl.com/en/202304180917
[Editor’s Note: So commenter’s position is that foreign intelligence services had evidence within 48 hours that Iranian military shot down the Ukrainian jet — but that the Iranian military still didn’t know that it had shot down the jet.
And that it was fine not to tell anyone in the Iranian leadership about this.
I think we can now pin this nonsense.]
“The Iranians have never presented another evidence for the suspicion that the missiles, fired by their anti-aircraft battery, were “hijacked”.”
They were not hacked. But that is what Iranian commanders needed to investigate: https://www.eupoliticalreport.eu/shooting-down-ukrainian-flight-ps572-what-do-we-need-to-know/
“In the context of the Russian footprint in this case, it is also very important to know if there was any external interference in the air defence system and whether it is possible to remotely control the launcher. Or perhaps, was it possible for an external player to mislead the missile defence crew? It’s about target identification, tracking and locking. Could it also be possible that it wasn’t the AA system that was hacked but rather the radar that was penetrated to transmit false data.”
Another possibility is that it was a shoulder-launched surface to air missile fired by a terrorist. It would have been reckless to go to the media without verifiying. If this were a cover-up, Iran would still be denying responsibility (as with the drone attacks on Saudi oil installations).
[Editor’s Note: The Iranians have never presented another evidence for the suspicion that the missiles, fired by their anti-aircraft battery, were “hijacked”.
This is the commenter’s own deflection.]
The U.S Military, like the Iranian military, does not release information to the media whilst investigations are pending: https://eu.tuscaloosanews.com/story/news/2003/06/28/for-west-blocton-mourning-one-of-its-own/27842264007/
“The U.S. Army would not release details about Lennon’s death Friday. According to an Army spokesman, the military does not release information about non-combat related deaths until investigations are completed. An investigation into Lennon’s death is ongoing, he said.”
This is what Iranian commanders may have feared had happened: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48735097
“The US launched a cyber-attack on Iranian weapons systems on Thursday as President Trump pulled out of air strikes on the country, US reports say. The cyber-attack disabled computer systems controlling rocket and missile launchers, the Washington Post said.”
They had to establish if human error or hacking by the Americans or Israelis had caused the missile to be fired.
[Editor’s Note: Commenter finally acknowledges that foreign intelligence established the cause of the downing soon after the Iranians fired the missiles.
He continues to be unware/deceptive about the cover-up by the Iranian military, including the hiding of information from President Rouhani and the Government.]
“As noted, preliminary information in the 24 hours after the shootdown — as Iran’s military hid details — kept open the possibility of engine malfunction. Commenter’s link reflects this.”
Those were independent claims. The cause of the crash was actually engine failure (among other reasons) but not due to a malfunction but because the missile used a proximity fuse: https://www.amimagazine.org/2020/01/22/anomalies/
“When it gets close, the radar proximity fuse tells the warhead to detonate. The missile is going so fast that by the time the fuse signal says detonate, the warhead back in the middle is in perfect position to create as much damage as possible. It was the shrapnel from the warhead in the middle that ripped Flight 724 apart; the distinctive steering nose from the SA-15 landed unharmed with the other debris from the attack.”
As we saw on video, the plane doesn’t break apart initially. It carries on with its journey before being engulfed in flames.
“But within 48 hours foreign intelligence agencies were able to put together evidence that missiles were fired on the jet.”
And the Iranian military used the same time to establish what had happened by completing its closed investigation.
“And in no country in the world is the protocol for the military to hide from political leaders that a foreign passenger jet has been shot down”
There was confusion about what had happened . That is why they conducted an investigation. They had to confirm that a missile had been fired by an operator or whether there had been a cyber-attack leading to the release. Nobody in the high command pressed a button. A local commander did that. After they finished their initial investigation, they came clean. Non cover up, no conspiracy…just regular protocol.
Btw, The US Navy lied to the President about the shooting down of an Iranian airliner by the USS Vincennes, claiming the aircraft was descending (when it was ascending and was in international airspace when it was in Iranian airspace).
[Editor’s Note: Needless to say, this repetition of regime propaganda doesn’t stand up.
The commenter is wrong that the Supreme Leader wasn’t immediately informed about the shootdown — he was.
However, the idea that the military was just being responsible in *not* informing the Government, including the President, is ludicrous. The armed forces were trying to do damage control before notifying any civilian official.
No “independent analyst” — Ukrainian or another nationality — cited “catastrophic engine failure”. The Ukrainian Embassy initially passed on “preliminary information” that was given to it — it soon stated that an investigation was needed to establish cause.]
There is no “shifting narrative”.
1. As General Hajzadeh has stated, the military held a closed 3 day investigation to determine if its operators had mistakenly fired a missile. Iran has a point air defense system, not an integrated one, which means that local commanders have to make decisions on whether to open fire. No information was provided to civilian officials as stipulated by protocol.
2. Iran’s civil aviation officials, the Ukrainian embassy and independent analysts all thought the cause of the crash was engine failure (the plane did not explode mid-air and its engines were seen on fire): https://www.reuters.com/article/iran-crash-engine-idUSS8N27M005
3. The confusion arises by the fact that the Russian-made missile fired did not detonate with the fuselage but away from it causing debris to enter the engine and cause it to catch fire. This gave the appearance that it may have suffered a malfunction.
4. Once the investigation had confirmed the missile had been fired, and it was not due to a cyber-hack, civilian officials (including the Leader and President) were informed and the media notified.
If there had been a “cover up” it wouldn’t have lasted just three days. The point about recklessness in allowing planes to take off during a military confrontation is valid, however. But operators were under immense stress due to reports that President Trump was preparing to launch cruise missile attacks.
[Editor’s Note: Commenter wilfully repeats the regime propaganda lines.
As noted, preliminary information in the 24 hours after the shootdown — as Iran’s military hid details — kept open the possibility of engine malfunction. Commenter’s link reflects this.
But within 48 hours foreign intelligence agencies were able to put together evidence that missiles were fired on the jet.
And in no country in the world is the protocol for the military to hide from political leaders that a foreign passenger jet has been shot down.]
Iran plane crash: Engine failure behind tragedy: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-plane-crash-cause-latest-engine-shot-down-ukraine-canada-boeing-737-800-a9276141.html
“An engine problem may have been to blame for a Ukrainian plane crash near Tehran which killed all 176 people on board, intelligence officials say. The Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 crashed just hours after Iran fired missiles at bases housing US forces in Iraq, prompting speculations that the aircraft may have been shot down. However five security officials, including one European, one Canadian and three Americans, told Reuters an initial assessment by western intelligence agencies had shown the jet suffered a technical malfunction. The Canadian source, who did not want to be named, said there was evidence one of the jet’s engines had overheated.”
The Leader was not informed until Friday after the completion of a closed investigation to determine what had happened and why. That is just following military protocol. This wasn’t damage control but information gathering and validation. General Hajzadeh explained exactly what happened and why the civilian authorities were certain that a technical problem was responsible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCTzXiSZJrs
Had the plane blown up mid-air, it would have been obvious it was shot down or there was a bomb on board. But it flew a fair distance (on fire) before crashing in a field.