Ontario court awards UIA Flight 752 victims’ families $142M in damages | 24CA News
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has awarded over $142 million to the households of eight passengers aboard Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 who died when the aircraft was shot down over Iran greater than three years in the past.
The courtroom sided with the households of their lawsuit towards Iran, in addition to the nation’s supreme chief and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that argued the defendants have been liable for an act of terrorism and the households’ ensuing hurt and loss.
In his resolution, Justice David Stinson dominated that the households efficiently established the shootdown “constitutes ‘terrorist activity’” underneath Canadian regulation and have been entitled to damages.
The complete consists of greater than $16 million to every household in punitive damages, and a further $1 million every for ache and struggling.
Some of the households have been additionally awarded between $150,000 and $200,000 for every sufferer for lack of steering, care and companionship. Those households misplaced siblings, spouses or, in a single case, a 22-year-old daughter.
Flight 752 was travelling from Tehran to Kyiv on Jan. 8, 2020 when it was shot down quickly after takeoff. The 176 passengers and crew members killed included 55 Canadian residents, 30 everlasting residents and others with ties to Canada, in addition to individuals from Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan and Iran. Their ages ranged from one to 74 years outdated.
Iran has concluded the surface-to-air missiles that shot down the aircraft have been fired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, however has maintained the act was a mistake, which the Canadian authorities and the victims have refused to simply accept.
Stinson’s judgment, issued Monday, comes after an earlier resolution within the Ontario Superior Court final yr that awarded the households of six different victims of the tragedy a mixed $107 million.
Taken collectively, the 2 judgments have awarded households almost $250 million.
Iran didn’t defend itself in both civil case, making the choices default judgments.
Questions will now flip to how or whether or not the households will ever see any of that cash.
Mark Arnold, an legal professional for the households in each Ontario civil circumstances, famous in a press release to Global News on Tuesday that among the victims’ households are suing to hunt the seizure of Iranian property in Canada and overseas to fulfill the harm awards.
But he claimed the federal authorities is “aggressively opposed” to that go well with by asserting in courtroom the property sought by the households stay diplomatic, and would subsequently be immune from courtroom seizures.
Arnold mentioned that though he and his fellow attorneys have been happy with the newest ruling, “they seek support not opposition from the Government of Canada in their efforts to recover sufficient Iranian assets to satisfy the judgments.”
Canada severed official diplomatic ties with Iran in 2012. The former Iranian embassy in Ottawa stays unoccupied and has been the location of many home protests towards the Iranian state, together with calls for for justice over Flight 752.
Canada, the U.Okay., Sweden and Ukraine launched a case towards Iran on the International Criminal Court final month in search of reparations for the households, in addition to to prosecute these liable for the shootdown.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
