SBU probing UIA plane crash in Iran under three articles of Criminal Code

The Main Investigation Department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has launched a pretrial investigation into the crash of the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 in Iran under three articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the SBU has told an Ukrinform correspondent.

"The SBU, at the behest of the Office of the Prosecutor General, has started an investigation into the circumstances of the Boeing plane crash under Part 3, Article 276 (violation of traffic safety rules or air transport operation), Part 2, Article 115 (intentional murder) and Article 194 (intentional destruction or damage to property) of the Criminal code of Ukraine," the report reads.

The SBU said that at this stage, the investigation is still gathering information.

Earlier, the Office of the Prosecutor General changed the qualification of a criminal case involving the downing of the Ukraine International Airlines aircraft in Iran.

A Ukraine International Airlines plane (flight PS752), en route from Tehran to Kyiv, crashed shortly after take-off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport early on January 8. There were 176 people on board the aircraft. All of them died. The crash killed 11 Ukrainians (two passengers and all nine crew), as well as Iranians, Canadians, Swedes, Afghans, Germans, and Britons.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps assumed responsibility for the UIA plane crash.

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