The families of victims aboard a Ukrainian flight that was shot down by Iran in 2020 called on the International Criminal Court to investigate the case as a war crime or crime against humanity.
Lawyers representing families said on Wednesday that the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims submitted an Article 15 Communication to Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC, providing information and evidence about crimes that occurred when Iranian missiles brought down Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752.
The request was submitted in accordance with Article 15 of the Rome Statute, alleging that perpetrators have committed certain war crimes and crimes against humanity against the passengers and crew of flight PS752 and their surviving family members, including the war crimes of willful killing, intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population or civilian objects, outrages upon personal dignity and pillage, as well as other inhumane acts.
"The affected countries -- especially Canada -- have acted with a glacial pace that has been marred by bureaucracy and a wishful thinking attitude toward a meaningful negotiation with the Islamic Republic of Iran," said spokesperson for the association representing the families, Hamed Esmaeilion, whose wife and nine-year-old daughter died onboard the flight.
The airliner was shot down by two air-defense missiles fired by the IRGC on January 8, 2020, as it took off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport. Only hours earlier, the IRGC had fired more than a dozen missiles at Iraqi bases hosting US and coalition troops in retaliation for the killing of the IRGC Qods Force Commander Ghasem Soleimani who was killed in Baghdad by a US drone strike just five days earlier.
Mohammad-Mehdi Rahimi, head of Raisi’s public relations office on Tuesday said the president has no account on Twitter. The announcement has left many wondering about the identity of those behind the account thought to be the president's official account, as it introduces itself. The account has been tweeting in his name since before he won the controversial presidential elections of June 2021.
According to Twitter the account was created in March 2021. It has been in regular use since May 26, 2021, more than 3 weeks before the election, and has over 173K followers including Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and the official news agency IRNA. The last tweet from the account which posted a quote from the president was posted on August 12th.
Most official news agencies and pro-Raisi news websites retweeted the tweets from @raisi.com account in Raisi's name throughout this time but the president’s media team never denied their authenticity until now.
“Denial of authenticity of Raisi's Twitter is one of the greatest blunders of the president’s media team … The question arises, if the account belongs to him, how come nobody is taking responsibility for it. Has something been said there that doesn’t suit the purposes of Raisi's team?” reformist Rouydad24 asked Wednesday.
The second scenario is that there is a Twitter account in Raisi's name that nearly all ministers, vice presidents, as well as the official government and cabinet accounts follow, retweet, and quote but nobody knows who it belongs to, Rouydad24 added.
“This is even a bigger blunder. One should ask not only the administration’s media team, but also security and intelligence bodies, how such a blunder could happen without anyone noticing?How is it that a fake Twitter account was publishing the Iranian government and president’s official stances, and no one investigated the matter for once?” Rouydad24 asked.
The semi-official Iranian Students News Agency, ISNA, was the first to report on June 1, 2021 that Raisi had officially joined Twitter. ISNA provided a link to the account.
Many of the earlier tweets posted on the account were written in first person voice and expressed then-Chief Justice and presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi’s views on domestic and foreign policies, including accusations against his predecessor’s government and his election rivals.
“I have been making calls and consultations to make the elections more competitive and inclusive, which you and [the disqualified candidates] themselves may not know about, since yesterday evening when I found out about the vetting results,” the very first tweet made from the account said.
The tweet referred to the controversial disqualification of three of Raisi’s main rivals -- former parliament speaker Ali Larijani, former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri – by the election watchdog, the Guardian Council.
Later tweets, after Raisi took office, often described his administration's approach to US sanctions, negotiations to restore the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers (JCPOA), selling oil, and regional and international matters. These tweets were regularly quoted by both domestic and foreign media.
Instagram is the only major social media platform not blocked in the country where other platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Telegram cannot be accessed without the use of anti-filtering software and VPNs (virtual private networks).
According to the prosecutors, the suspects targeted hundreds of victims in the US and other countries, encrypting and stealing data from victims’ networks and threatening to release it unless exorbitant ransom payments were made. In some cases, the victims made those payments.
A senior Justice Department official said that the hackers are not believed to have been working on behalf of the Iranian government but instead for their own financial gain, and some of the victims were even in Iran.
The case was filed in federal court in New Jersey, where a municipality in Union County was hacked last year. One of the victims was a domestic violence shelter in Pennsylvania, which – according to the indictment -- was extorted out of $13,000 to recover its hacked data.
In the latest actions as part of the US government’s response to the malicious cyber activities by Iranian actors, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also sanctioned ten individuals and two entities Wednesday for their roles in malicious cyber acts, including ransomware activity.
The OFAC said all the individuals and entities designated Wednesday are affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC).
Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson said, “We will continue to take coordination action with our global partners to combat and deter ransomware threats, including those associated with the IRGC.”
