Sunday will be the three-year anniversary of Downing ukraine international airlines flight 752And for Surrey’s Shahrukh Firdausi, the pain is still raw.
On January 8, 2020, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down the plane shortly after take off from Tehran, killing all 176 passengers and crew on board.
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Fifty-five Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents died in the disaster, including Firdausi’s cousin, Dr. Farhad Niknam, a Toronto dentist, returning home from a Christmas trip to Iran with his wife and children.
“I really miss him, I miss his voice, I miss his presence, I wish he was here,” Firdausi told Global News through tears.
“The only things they found of her belongings were a pouch she wrapped around her waist and a photo album.”
The photo album was turned into a page with pictures of Nikam’s children.
The final report from Iran’s civil aviation body blamed “human error” for the incident, claiming a missile operator mistook the airliner as a “hostile target” amid rising tensions with the US. Told, and fired without obtaining approval from a superior – a report that drew criticism from victims’ families around the world.
The aircraft was destroyed after being hit by two missiles fired 30 seconds apart.
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Firdausi said he often wondered how the 30 seconds between those two impacts were the last moments of his friend’s life.
“My guess is that the last moment of his life he opened the album and looking at the pictures he was going to die,” Firdausi said.
Among the Canadian victims were doctors, dentists, academics, a five-year-old child and a newly married couple.
“Besides, one of the other passengers was five months pregnant,” Firdausi said.
Supporters, friends and families of the victims say there has yet to be justice or accountability for Iran over the tragedy, or a proper explanation for why the civilian aircraft was targeted.
The four countries responsible for the majority of the victims – Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Ukraine – have joined a coordination group to hold Iran responsible for the incident.
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Last month, they jointly sent a diplomatic note to Iran, seeking to participate in the arbitration under the terms of the 1971 Montreal Convention, an international treaty Iran is also a signatory to.
That treaty requires states to prevent and punish crimes against civil aviation. If the countries are unable to resolve the dispute within six months, Iran can be sued in the International Court of Justice.
Three years later, Iran now finds itself at the center of another human rights crisis, accused of brutalizing and killing hundreds of civilians amid continuing anti-government protests prompted by the death of 22-year-old Masha Amini.
“I really feel like we’re part of a river, we’re just swimming in this river, just every day we add to it, the victims just keep coming in, it’s just getting bigger and bigger,” Fedosi said.
“And now I am afraid that this river is going to turn into sea soon. There are so many victims, like my cousins, who have been hurt by the system.
Families of the victims of Ukraine Airlines flight PS752 will hold rallies in more than 100 cities on Sunday to mark the third anniversary of the plane crash.
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