Iran’s judiciary has said passengers on the country’s Mahan Air plane “harassed” by a US fighter jet over Syria can sue the “terrorist” U.S military for damages in the Iranian courts.
Iranian media said on Friday that several passengers on the flight from Tehran to Beirut were injured on Thursday after the pilot quickly changed altitude to avoid a collision with the US plane.
“All passengers on Mahan Air Flight 1152, Iranian and non-Iranian, can sue the United States terrorist army – commanders, perpetrators, supervisors and deputies – in the Iranian courts for moral and physical damage,” Ali Bagheri-Kani, head of the human being of the judicial power. rights office, was quoted by the semi-official news agency ILNA.
He said claimants could also take an international legal route through the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the United Nations agency that oversees international civil aviation agreements.
The US military said its F-15 was at a safe distance and that the fighter was conducting a visual inspection of the plane as it passed near Tanf’s garrison in Syria, home to US forces.
The judicial official said Iranian courts follow laws that address human rights violations and “acts of adventure and terror by the United States in the region.”
It was unclear if any passenger would sue the US military. Iran said on Friday that it had filed a complaint with ICAO, calling the incident a “flagrant violation” of international law.
The incident was the latest in tensions between Tehran and Washington since President Donald Trump withdrew the US in 2018 from Iran’s nuclear deal with six powers and re-imposed sanctions that have hit Iran’s economy.
Images of the interior of the plane aired on Iranian state television on Friday showed one passenger lying motionless on the floor and another with an injured nose and forehead.
A passenger with blood running down his forehead and another who had fallen to the ground were seen in the video, which also showed an airplane passing through the window.
Flight data recorded by the FlightRadar24.com website showed the Mahan Air plane climbed from 34,000 feet to 34,600 feet in less than two minutes around the time of the incident, and then dropped back to 34,000 feet in one minute.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
.
