One year after a Ukrainian Airlines passenger flight was shot out of the skies over Tehran, Iranian families gathered at Imam Khomeini Airport to commemorate their loved ones who were killed aboard Flight 752, in the place where they last saw them alive.
Flowers and photographs of some of the dead were laid in a section of the airport. Family members took turns to speak about the people they had lost on January 8, 2020 – and once more, to demand that the perpetrators be brought to justice.
One man, understood to be the father of one of the victims, described the Revolutionary Guards as “criminals” for firing two missiles at the passenger plane that morning. “We have come to lay flowers where our children took their last steps,” he said, “and to condemn the crime that was committed against them."
Members of the Association of Families of Flight 752 victims have also held a vigil near the crash site at Shahedshahr, a city in Tehran province. Security forces initially blocked the way but then moved to let them through.
On the anniversary of the Flight 752 disaster, Tehran’s military prosecutor has chosen to simultaneously announce the end of the Iranian investigation, stating that the cause of the tragedy was a “mistake” by the commander of the Guards’ defense system, a position the families are unlikely to accept. Just one person has so far been arrested in connection with the tragedy.
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