This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Ukraine has asked Canada, France, Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Iran to assign experts to assist in the investigation of the January 8 crash of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) flight PS0752 near Tehran that killed all 176 people aboard.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor-General’s Office said late on January 16 that the request was sent as a follow-up to agreements reached in London earlier in the day at a meeting of foreign ministers of the countries whose citizens were killed in the air crash.
The statement came as Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said that his country, as well as Afghanistan, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Ukraine are demanding that Tehran pay compensation to families of the victims of the crash.
In a statement from the meeting in London, the group of countries said that Iran should hold a “thorough, independent, and transparent international investigation open to grieving nations.”
The UIA Boeing 737-800 crashed several minutes after taking off from Tehran’s primary international airport.
Iranian authorities initially denied any responsibility, but three days after the tragedy the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps admitted the plane was shot down “unintentionally.”
