After three days of cover-up and lies about the crime they had committed, the leaders of the Islamic Republic officially admitted that the Ukrainian airliner had been shot down by missiles fired by the Islamic Republic’s Sepah army (Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps). In view of the many pieces of evidence, there is no doubt that this crime was committed deliberately. However, even if we disregard the deliberate nature of the crime and Khamenei’s direct role in approving and ordering it, Khamenei, as the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, as well as the top commanders of the IRGC who are behind this crime should be put on trial so that the motivation and the reasons for the crime, the people involved in it and the degree of the offence and the penalty of each of the perpetrators may be established. Politically too, world states should break off their diplomatic relations with the regime. The Islamic Republic is not the representative of the people of Iran; it is their murderer. Diplomatic relations with the criminals ruling Iran must be cut off and their embassies shut down.
Some European states as well as the Canadian government, which has a more transparent position compared to other states, have demanded that the plane’s black box be handed over and a team be sent to Iran to investigate the disaster. These steps must be taken; however, they are by no means the solution. An enormous crime has taken place and the murderers have explicitly admitted it. This alone makes a trial necessary to investigate the various aspects of the crime. The driver of a car involved in a deadly crash, whether intentionally or accidentally, is summoned to court so that, based on the hearing and the evidence, the degree of his or her offence may be determined. Firing missiles on a passenger plane and killing 176 people is a much graver incident than a car crash. Is it not clear that even by the most primitive judicial standards in the world, a court hearing is the first condition for ensuring justice for the victims of this disaster?
The governments in the West are unwilling to pursue this matter all the way to its conclusion as it will end up in the need to break off diplomatic relations with the regime and its political boycott, which is not the policy of those governments. That is why, despite putting certain demands to the Islamic Republic, which they are not insistent on anyway, they are not even prepared to unequivocally condemn it, let alone call for a trial and the political boycott of the regime. It is thus down to us the people and the families of the victims to insist on our demands for justice.
The first step in ensuring justice is the convening of an international court outside Iran with the appearance of the direct perpetrators of this crime in that court. The Worker-communist Party of Iran insists on this just demand, and will do all it can to ensure it is carried out. We also demand the breaking off of diplomatic ties by all states with the Islamic Republic and the regime’s political boycott. Our party calls on all people and specifically the families of the victims to insist on these demands and to put pressure on the governments in the West for their implementation. All the leaders of the Islamic Republic, from Khamenei to successive Presidents of the Islamic Republic, as well as IRGC commanders, the commanders of the Baseej force, the heads of the Intelligence Ministry and all the other repressive organs of the regime should be put on trial for forty years of endless crimes. This will ultimately happen with the overthrow of the regime. However, now that the eyes of the world are fixed on this blatant crime of the regime, we should not let it be forgotten.
Worker-communist Party of Iran
23 January 2020
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