A flight recorder, also known as a black box, purportedly recovered from the crashed Ukrainian airliner, Boeing 737-800, is seen in this still image taken from a video, in Tehran, Iran January 10, 2020. Photo: IRIB VIA WANA/Handout via REUTERS.

i24 News – The shooting-down of a Ukrainian passenger plane in January 2020 that killed all 176 people aboard was a deliberate act of terrorism by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Ontario Superior Court ruled in a decision released on Thursday.

Justice Edward Belobaba found “on a balance of probabilities that the missile attacks on Flight 752 were intentional.”

“The plaintiffs have established that the shooting down of Flight 752 by the defendants was an act of terrorism and constitutes ‘terrorist activity,’” the judge added.

One of the experts on whom the judge relied in the trial said the IRGC “knew Flight PS 752 was a civilian airplane and purposefully shot it down with the intent to destroy it.”

Iran’s IRGC shot two TOR M-1 surface-to-air missiles at the plane on January 8, 2020, shortly after it left Tehran’s airport.

The judge wrote that the Iran’s IRGC “intentional and directly caused the deaths of all onboard” by firing missiles at the plane.

Canada’s State Immunity Act would normally grant Iran immunity from prosecution; however, the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act allows an exception. The ruling now allows families of the victims to sue Iran.