Canadian Court Orders Iran To Pay $84 Million to Some Victims of Flight Shot Down Over Tehran

The Superior Court of Justice in Ontario, Canada has ordered Iran to pay some $84 million to the families of six people killed when a passenger plane traveling to Kyiv was shot down over Tehran in 2020. Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was attacked with missiles fired by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard minutes after takeoff on January 8, 2020, killing all 176 people aboard. There were a total of 85 Canadian citizens on board the flight, along with citizens of Iran, Ukraine, Sweden, Afghanistan, Germany and Britain, many of who have survivors who have filed lawsuits in their own countries. The judge in his decision dated December 31, 2021, said the case is the first time a Canadian court had been asked to determine damages “for loss of life caused by terrorism.” It is not clear how the money will be collected from Iran, which did not submit any information or testimony to the court case. Tehran previously offered the families of those killed on the flight $150,000 per victim. A virtual news conference earlier this week to announce the verdict was disrupted by heavy metal music and pornographic images that caused the attorneys to end the call. Iran said the missile attack was an accident, not terror.