Iranian Authorities Hand Down Jail Terms for those Responsible for Downing Ukraine Flight

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Recently, an Iranian court passed a verdict which said that the air defense commander responsible for the disaster of a passenger plane in January 2020 must be punished. That passenger plane was accidentally shot down by the Iranian military, killing all 176 people on board at that time. This incident happened when Iran and America were having very tense relations with each other.

The commander who reportedly gave the order for a strike was sentenced to 13 years in jail, as announced by an official news agency. The court also noted that he failed to follow proper procedure when shooting down the plane and was ordered to pay fines to family members of those affected. Two other personnel operating the Tor M-1 missile system were given one year in prison each.

after a long trial, the court gave punishment to seven people and military officials which included up to three years in prison. There’s still a chance for appeal within 20 days as reported by Mizan but no name or details were mentioned in the report.

Plus, Iran’s government is also planning to give $150,000 compensation money to the families of each victim but they didn’t say how this money will reach them.

Since 2021, hearings regarding the shootdown of an airplane in January of 2020 have been met with criticism. A group of people connected to victims’ families also thought the court was not fair and believed that none of the defendants were present at the hearings.

That same day, Iran had fired missiles at U.S. bases in Iraq as a reaction to the United States killing an important Iranian leader known as Qassem Soleimani with a drone strike in Baghdad.