Victim’s fiancé angry over Iran’s compensation offer

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This article was published 31/12/2020 (1902 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Iran’s compensation offer to the families of victims of the downed Ukrainian International flight PS752 has been called a publicity stunt and “a slap in the face.”

A Winnipeg man whose fiancée died on Jan. 8 after the plane was shot down by two Iranian missiles, said Iran’s proposal to pay US$150,000 for each victim is nothing but a ploy to assuage international scrutiny leading up to the crash’s one-year anniversary.

“From the very beginning, we made it very clear. We want truth. We want justice,” said Kourosh Doustshenas, who was engaged to Forough Khadem, a scientist who had obtained her PhD at the University of Manitoba.

“(This year’s) been terrible. It’s been, every day, a struggle for us not knowing the truth,” he said. “Without knowing the truth and without any justice, how can we have closure?”

Doustshenas is one of the directors of the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims, which represents 135 families.

“We are aware of what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to use this as propaganda,” he said. “They’re trying to buy their way into some kind of media… to show they did the right thing to pay the families.”

The country’s president announced the cabinet’s planned compensation fund on Wednesday, although details of when money would be paid out are unknown.

The Kyiv-bound Ukrainian passenger flight PS752 crashed within minutes after taking off from the Iranian capital, Tehran, after being shot down.

The crash killed all 176 people on board, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents, several of whom had ties to Winnipeg.

‘(This year’s) been terrible. It’s been, every day, a struggle for us not knowing the truth… Without knowing the truth and without any justice, how can we have closure?’– Kourosh Doustshenas

Other Winnipeg victims include Mohammad Mahdi Sadeghi and his wife, Bahareh Hajesfandiari, and their daughter, Anisa; Farzaneh Naderi and her son, Noojan Sadr; and two U of M students: Amirhossein Ghassemi and Amirhossein Bahabadi Ghorbani.

Doustshenas said Iran’s criminal and evasive behaviour over the past year — including initially denying any responsibility for downing the plane, delaying turning over the plane’s black boxes to France, and failing to release the names of those responsible — has left families searching for unanswered questions.

“Throughout the year, they did everything they can not to do the right thing, not to tell the truth,” said Doustshenas. “They have done all of this in absence of any sort of… human decency.”

He said although compensation will play a part in realizing justice, it shouldn’t come at the cost of accountability and taking away families’ rights to legal recourse, which Doustshenas says Iran has attempted with its citizens.

In a Dec. 22 statement, the association said, “The Iranian officials are also contacting the families in Iran again to talk about compensation. The point is obvious, but we must still remind the Iranian government: the families are vigilant and will not sign any document.”

“No, we are not going to do that,” said Doustshenas, who added Iranian officials haven’t contacted him. “Without knowing the truth and not getting any kind of justice, we cannot have any closure in our lives.”

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca