Iran indicts 10 officials over military shoot down of Ukrainian plane

Iran’s outgoing military prosecutor, Gholamabbas Torki, said Tuesday that 10 officials have been indicted over the 2020 military shootdown of a Ukrainian passenger plane that killed all 176 passengers on board.

“The indictment of the case of the Ukrainian plane was also issued and a serious and accurate investigation was carried out and indictments were issued for 10 people who were at fault,” Torki told reporters as he handed over his duties to his successor Nasser Seraj.

The Iranian official did not name any of the 10 officials indicted in the case.

Last March, Iran came under severe international criticism after publishing a final report on the Ukrainian Airlines plane crash, which blamed the incident on “human error” but held no one responsible for it.

On January 8, 2020, a Ukrainian Boeing 737 airliner crashed in Tehran minutes after take-off killing all 176 passengers on board.

Following days of denying responsibility, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard admitted to shooting down the Ukrainian jetliner with two surface-to-air missiles after mistaking it for an American cruise missile.

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