Iran to pay families of victims of downed Ukranian jet $150,000 each

The Legal Department of the Office of Iran’s President’s Office on Wednesday passed a bill to pay $150,000 to each of the bereaved families of the victims of the Ukrainian plane which was mistakenly shot down early this year. 

According to IRNA, the Ministry of Transport and Urban Development has been instructed to arrange for the payment of $150,000 or its equivalent in euros to the families of each of the victims.

It said the damages resulting from the deaths of the victims should be paid without any discrimination based on nationality, citizenship and gender and according to the laws of the victims’ countries, IRNA reported.

On January 8, an Iranian air defense unit mistakenly shot down Flight 752 of the Ukrainian International Airlines shortly after take-off from Tehran en route to Kiev. 

179 passengers and nine crew members were killed in the downing. The victims included 82 Iranians, 63 Iranian-Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, 10 Afghans, three Germans, and three British nationals.

The operator had mistaken the Boeing 737-800 with a cruise missile at a time when the air defense systems were at the highest level of alert following the United States’ earlier killing of prominent Iranian commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.