The Ontario Superior Court of Justice said in a ruling issued on Tuesday that UIA is legally responsible for paying damages to the families of 21 passengers killed aboard Flight PS752 which was mistakenly shot down by Iranian military forces on January 8, 2020.
Justice Jasmine Akbarali ruled that the UIA had been negligent about the safety of its passengers because it had failed to have a proper assessment about the security situation in the region and risks of operating the flight out of Tehran on the day the tragedy happened.
The ruling said that hours before the UIA flight took off from Tehran, Iran had launched ballistic missile attacks on a US air base in Iraq in retaliation for the assassination a few days earlier of one of its top generals.
It said that the Ukrainian airline should have known that Tehran was waiting for a potential response from the US.
Iran has held a trial to prosecute those responsible for the accidental downing of the Ukrainian flight.
The country has also paid a sum of $150,000 in compensation per passenger to many families of the victims of the tragedy.
IRNA