Flight PS752 Victims Families Protest UN Official's Visit To Iran

A protest by families of the victims of Flight PS752, which was downed by the IRGC, against a visit by the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations, Nada Al-Nashif, Tehran (February 2024)
A protest by families of the victims of Flight PS752, which was downed by the IRGC, against a visit by the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations, Nada Al-Nashif, Tehran (February 2024)

Families of the victims of Flight PS752 protested the visit of the deputy United Nations human rights commissioner to Iran outside the UN's Tehran offices on Saturday.

Nada Al-Nashif is scheduled to arrive in Iran Sunday. During the three-day visit, she is due to address rights abuses in the Islamic Republic including spiking executions and deepening crackdowns on women's freedoms.

Protesters were confronted by law enforcement and security forces who quickly dispersed the crowd who lost families in the downed Ukrainian airliner incident on January 8, 2020. Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) shot down the plane shortly after it took off near Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport, resulting in the deaths of all 176 passengers and crew on board.

On Tuesday, families of Flight PS752 victims issued a statement addressing Nashif's visit. They emphasized the ongoing struggle against compulsory hijab laws and urged the UN official to meet with families of executed individuals and those impacted by recent protests in Iran.

In April, the Tehran military court sentenced the operator of the system, responsible for firing the missiles at the plane, to 13 years in prison and ordered him to pay compensation. Among the military personnel accused, none of the high-ranking military or government officials of the Islamic Republic are named.