UIA crash: Ukraine asks Canada to provide audio recording of talks
This will be the fourth inquiry from the Ukrainian side, Deputy Prosecutor General Gyunduz Mamedov said, Ukrinform reports with reference to the PGO’s press service.
“We hope that Canada, without undue expectations, will provide Ukraine with the audio recording of negotiations that was published in the media. We look forward to receiving the audio file, because the processes of examining a recording and conducting phonetic expertise can be launched in parallel: in Canada and in Ukraine. And, consequently, the investigation will go faster to establish the truth and restore justice,” Mamedov said.
He also recalled that on January 8, the Prosecutor General's Office initiated criminal proceedings into the cases of premeditated murder, destruction of other people's property and violation of air traffic safety rules.
Earlier, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Yevhen Yenin said that the preliminary investigation bodies and the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine were examining an audio recording of negotiations with the likely participation of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif regarding the possible reasons for the destruction of the UIA plane near Tehran in January last year.
Canada’s CBC News learned that the Canadian government and security agencies were reviewing an audio recording in which a man - identified by sources as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran Mohammad Javad Zarif - discusses the possibility that the destruction of Flight PS752 was an intentional act.
On January 8, 2020, Ukraine International Airlines plane (Flight PS752) heading from Tehran to Kyiv crashed shortly after taking off from the Imam Khomeini International Airport. There were 176 people on board – nine crew members (all Ukrainians) and 167 passengers (citizens of Ukraine, Iran, Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan, Germany, and the UK).
On January 11, Iran admitted that its military had accidentally shot down the Ukrainian passenger jet. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accepted full responsibility for the downing of the Ukrainian airliner.
On December 29, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded the flight PS752 crewmembers the titles of Hero of Ukraine with the Order of the Golden Star.
On January 5, 2021, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Ukraine had received from Iran a draft technical report on the circumstances of the crash of flight PS752, and should prepare its comments by the end of February.
ish
