MONTREAL: Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and Britain on Monday filed a complaint with the United Nations civil aviation agency against Iran over a 2020 plane crash that killed 176 people.
In a joint statement, the four countries — which all had citizens aboard the flight — accused Tehran of “using weapons against a civil aircraft in flight in breach of its international legal obligations.”
Four years to the day after the tragedy, the countries have opened “dispute settlement proceedings” with the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the filing was “an important step in our commitment to ensuring that the families of the victims impacted by this tragedy get the justice they deserve.”
The ICAO did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday afternoon.
All 176 people aboard the Ukraine International Airlines flight — mostly Canadians and Iranians — were killed when the Boeing 737-800 was downed shortly after takeoff from Tehran on January 8, 2020.
Three days later, Iran admitted that its military had targeted the Kyiv-bound plane with two surface-to-air missiles by mistake.
The Iranian Civil Aviation Organization has pointed in a report to the “alertness” of its troops on the ground, who shot the missiles amid heightened tensions between Iran and the United States at the time.
“For four years now, Iran has refused to take full legal responsibility for the downing of Flight PS752 despite our numerous attempts to engage in negotiations on this matter,” Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and Britain said in the statement.
In July, the multi-nation group appealed their case to the International Court of Justice, seeking reparations from Iran for the victims’ families.
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Countries file UN complaint over 2020 flight downed by Iran
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Countries file UN complaint over 2020 flight downed by Iran
- Four years to the day after the tragedy, the countries have opened “dispute settlement proceedings” with the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal
Zimbabwe opposition says constitutional ‘coup’ under way
- The accusations came after the cabinet approved amendments that would allow President Emmerson Mnangagwa to extend his term in office
HARARE: Leading Zimbabwe opposition figures accused the government Wednesday of a constitutional “coup” after the cabinet approved amendments that would allow President Emmerson Mnangagwa to extend his term in office.
Sweeping changes to the constitution accepted by the cabinet Tuesday include extending the presidential term to seven years and follow a decision by the ruling Zanu-PF that Mnangagwa should stay in office beyond the end of his second term in 2028.
The amendments will be presented to parliament, which is weighted in favor of the Zanu-PF, but the opposition insists they also need to be put to a national referendum.
“The process that is currently happening in Zimbabwe is a coup by the incumbent to extend his term of office against the will of the people,” opposition politician and fierce government critic Job Sikhala told AFP.
“We have got an incumbent who wants to railroad himself, using the tyrannical and dictatorial tendencies of his rule, into another two years to 2030,” he said.
He said his National Democratic Working Group had asked the African Union to intervene.
Mnangagwa came to power in 2017 in a military-backed coup that ousted Robert Mugabe, who ruled the southern African country for 37 years.
He was elected to a five-year term in 2018 and again in 2023 but has been accused of allowing rampant corruption to the benefit of the Zanu-PF — which has been in power since independence in 1980 — while eroding democratic rights.
Sikhala, a former lawmaker with the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party, was arrested in South Africa last year for alleged possession of explosives. He says they were planted in his vehicle in an apparent assassination attempt.
“What is unfolding in Zimbabwe is not constitutional reform. It is a constitutional coup,” Jameson Timba, a CCC leader who has established a group called the Defend the Constitution Platform (DCP), said in a statement on X.
The president and his party are using “formal processes” such as cabinet decisions “to entrench power without the free and direct consent of the people,” he said.
Sweeping changes to the constitution accepted by the cabinet Tuesday include extending the presidential term to seven years and follow a decision by the ruling Zanu-PF that Mnangagwa should stay in office beyond the end of his second term in 2028.
The amendments will be presented to parliament, which is weighted in favor of the Zanu-PF, but the opposition insists they also need to be put to a national referendum.
“The process that is currently happening in Zimbabwe is a coup by the incumbent to extend his term of office against the will of the people,” opposition politician and fierce government critic Job Sikhala told AFP.
“We have got an incumbent who wants to railroad himself, using the tyrannical and dictatorial tendencies of his rule, into another two years to 2030,” he said.
He said his National Democratic Working Group had asked the African Union to intervene.
Mnangagwa came to power in 2017 in a military-backed coup that ousted Robert Mugabe, who ruled the southern African country for 37 years.
He was elected to a five-year term in 2018 and again in 2023 but has been accused of allowing rampant corruption to the benefit of the Zanu-PF — which has been in power since independence in 1980 — while eroding democratic rights.
Sikhala, a former lawmaker with the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party, was arrested in South Africa last year for alleged possession of explosives. He says they were planted in his vehicle in an apparent assassination attempt.
“What is unfolding in Zimbabwe is not constitutional reform. It is a constitutional coup,” Jameson Timba, a CCC leader who has established a group called the Defend the Constitution Platform (DCP), said in a statement on X.
The president and his party are using “formal processes” such as cabinet decisions “to entrench power without the free and direct consent of the people,” he said.
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