ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Tehran on Wednesday lodged a suit against Ottawa at the International Court of Justice and accused it of breaching state immunity by allowing relatives and family members of terror attack victims to claim damages from Iran.
In the case announced by the ICJ, Iran claimed that Canada is “obliged to respect the jurisdictional immunity which Iran enjoys under international law” and called on the top court to hold Canada accountable for breaching the Islamic republic’s state immunity, according to the UN top tribunal.
“Canada has adopted and implemented a series of legislative, executive, and judicial measures against Iran and its property in breach of its international obligations,” Iran wrote to the court, demanding compensation from Ottawa.
Listed in the Canadian cases is a ruling by the Ontario Supreme Court that the Iranian military’s downing of Ukrainian International Airlines flight PS752 over two years ago with two missiles constituted an act of “terrorism.” The attack resulted in the deaths of all 176 people on board.
The court awarded $80 million to families of six victims of the tragedy, with over 100 people on the plane holding Canadian residency or citizenship.
Ukrainian International Airlines flight PS752, bound for Kyiv, was shot down shortly after taking off from Tehran on January 8, 2020, with two surface-to-air missiles, killing all 176 people onboard.
Iran initially denied shooting down the plane, saying that it mistook the aircraft for a missile amid heightened tensions with the United States in the region over Washington’s drone strike that assassinated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) top commander Qasem Soleimani.
Declaring the downing as a terrorist act allowed families of victims to seek compensation for their losses in Canadian courts, bypassing Iran’s legal state immunity.
Canada and Iran severed ties in 2012 over Tehran’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the onset of the brutal civil war in Syria as well as anti-Israel hostilities and its ambitious nuclear program.
“Iran respectfully requests the Court to adjudge and declare that by failing to respect the immunities of Iran and its property, Canada has violated its international obligations toward Iran,” Iran’s letter to the court read.
The Hague-based ICJ’s rulings are final and legally binding, though they can take years to resolve.
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