Ukraine ‘even closer’ to decision on legal action over Flight PS752, ambassador says

“Obviously, our intention is to make sure that we co-ordinate well with Canada and with other involved countries,” he told host Vassy Kapelos.  

Iran announced earlier Tuesday that it had indicted the officials but Tehran military prosecutor Gholamabbas Torki withheld their names when he made the announcement. 

Last year, Iran’s military shot down Ukrainian International Airlines Flight PS752, killing 176 people, many of whom had ties to Canada, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.

The indictments come after Iran faced widespread criticism last month for releasing a final report into the incident that blamed human error, but named no one responsible.

Shevchenko said his government is not satisfied with the technical or criminal investigations. 

He said his officials did not have “good co-operation” with Iranian officials and Iran’s failure to name the officials it is blaming for the tragedy does not improve upon the investigations’ transparency.  

“We have no clarity on who those people are and also we do not know what exactly they are accused of,” Shevchenko said. 

“We do not know much how thorough the investigation has been so I would say that Iran has still a lot of work to do to prove that this investigation is transparent and this does not change what we feel about this; we feel that there should be more transparency and we’re not going to compromise on transparency on clarity and on justice,” he said. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that he also remained concerned about Iran’s “lack of transparency and the lack of a full and total investigation.”

“We will continue to work with the international community, work to reform international aviation standards and mostly work to make sure that the families that I have had the opportunity to meet with and sit down with — who continue to be heart broken and will for the rest of their lives on the losses of these loved ones — get closure, get compensation and mostly get justice from Iran.” 

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