Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhen Enin says the litigation related to the downing of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) flight PS752 near Tehran may last at least five years if Ukraine appeals to the International Court of Justice.
The litigation, excluding the trial itself, will last two years, otherwise, it will take at least five years, he told the RBC Ukraine news agency on June 17.
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However, he emphasized that bringing the matter before the court would be an amicable settlement of the situation. There have not yet been cases of non-enforcement of court rulings in international practice, he said.
"There were cases when the execution of judgments was delayed, but they were all eventually enforced," he added.
As UNIAN reported earlier, a Kyiv-bound UIA flight PS752 crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport in the early hours of January 8. It was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members on board. Two passengers and the crew members were Ukrainians. There were also 82 citizens of Iran, 63 citizens of Canada, 10 citizens of Sweden, four citizens of Afghanistan, three citizens of Germany and the United Kingdom each. There were no survivors.
On January 11, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani officially admitted that the Ukrainian airliner had been shot down by accident as a result of a "human error" and that those responsible would be held accountable.
On February 2, intercepted communications between Tehran Airport's air traffic control tower and the second pilot of Iran's Aseman Airlines flight at the time of the crash of flight PS752 were released by TSN.Tyzhden. Tehran blamed the Ukrainian authorities for leaking what it described as confidential evidence, and said it would no longer share investigation materials with Ukraine.
On February 14, the Iranian Foreign Minister said Iran did not plan to hand the black boxes over but it would not decrypt their data without the participation of the parties concerned.
On June 7, Enin said that Iran had still not responded to Ukraine's note on settling all issues related to the UIA flight PS752 case.
