Leak exposes Iran's involvement in striking Ukrainian plane
A new audio leak has exposed that Tehran deliberately
allowed civil flights to fly in conjunction with the Ukrainian plane shot down
in January.
Leaked recording
Canadian channel CBC News obtained a recording of a
90-minute conversation in which Hassan Rezaeifar, head of the Iranian
investigation team, spoke about the Ukrainian Airlines incident in which 176
people were killed, including 57 Canadians.
Hours after the channel sent a copy of the recording to Rezaeifar
for comment, he was removed from his post and the families of the victims were
notified that a new investigator had taken over.
In the leaked recording, Rezaeifar revealed that the
airspace over Tehran was left open to avoid early detection of the missile
attack on US air bases in Iraq that night in response to the killing of Quds
Force commander Qassem Soleimani a week earlier. He added that the closure of
the airspace would have meant the cancellation of flights, from which Iran
earns hundreds of thousands of dollars per day in fees.
Civilian aircraft, human shield
Payam Akhavan, a former international law professor and
former United Nations prosecutor at The Hague, also reviewed the audio
recording, said that deliberately leaving civilian aircraft in harm's way and
using passengers as human shields constitutes criminal responsibility, as the
highest levels of the Iranian government chose to keep civilian aircraft flying
during a time full of military activity.
"The matter is not a human oversight, but criminal
recklessness," he said, adding that the investigation team is nothing but
a front to cover up the crime.
The Rezaeifar recording also revealed that just five minutes
after the incident, he received information from Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, commander
of the Revolutionary Guards Aerospace Force, who informed him that he had an
order to fire missiles at the plane for reasons of national security.
Tehran had denied for three continuous days that it had been
involved in shooting down the plane, instead insisting the incident was caused
by a technical failure of the engine. But on January 11, the Iranian army
admitted that it had shot down the plane by mistake.
The leaked call took place between Rezaeifar and the husband
of one of the victims. Rezaeifar tried to pressure him not to criticize the
Iranian regime on the internet. When the husband refused to respond, the
intelligence services contacted his family members in Iran to put pressure on him
to remain silent.
Black box
Tehran is expected to publish a report on the incident
before sending the recovered black box to France on July 20 for analysis.
