UIA plane crash: Canada court awards $110M in compensation to victims’ families

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ordered that the families of the eight victims of the Ukrainian International Airlines flight 752 crash in Tehran be paid more than CAD 142 million (nearly USD110 million) in compensation.

This is stated in the court's ruling, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Judge David Stinson concluded that each family shall be awarded more than CAD 17 million.

This ruling is based on a previous court judgment that found the downing of PS752 to be a deliberate act of terrorism. Mark Arnold, a lawyer for the victims' relatives, said at the time that he would seek to seize Iran's assets in Canada and abroad if Tehran refused to voluntarily comply with the court order.

Although Iran officials were subpoenaed, the government did not defend itself during trial. The state of Iran, the Armed Forces, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and several other defendants have been named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Note that this is the second such court ruling handed down in Canada. Earlier, the court awarded CAD107 million to the families of the other six victims of the disaster.

On January 8, 2020, the Ukrainian International Airlines flight 752, headed for Kyiv, crashed a few minutes after takeoff near the Iranian capital.

The plane was shot down by Iran's air defense forces, while Tehran authorities later said the plane was mistaken for a military target amid tensions with Washington.

Iran admitted that the cause was human error made by the operator of the air defense radar control system.

Photo: AA