A criminal case has been filed against Iranian lawmaker Hassan Noroozi for “spreading lies, causing public concern, and disrupting judicial investigations" concerning comments he made over Iran’s downing of a Ukrainian civilian airliner in January which killed all 176 onboard, said head of the judicial organization of the armed forces on Monday.
“Norouzi’s statement was his personal interpretation, which he issued without knowing the scope of the case. One person is currently being held in custody in connection with the case, and several others have been summoned, said Shokrollah Bahrami .
Noroozi who is also the spokesman for the parliamentary judicial committee said no one had been arrested for shooting down a Ukrainian passenger plane near Tehran, adding that the plane was allegedly not under the control of Iranian air traffic controller, but was under US and Israeli control.
The plane was in Israel a week before the attacks and there "its security system was hacked and intercepted," he added.
"Special facilities in Iran were the targets of the plane. Given that the plane was controlled by other countries, our military did a good job," he continued.
Iran admitted earlier that it had inadvertently shot down the plane using a cruise missile and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has taken responsibility for the incident. Iran insists the flight was downed as a result of “human error.”
Gholamhossein Esmaili, the spokesman for Iran's judiciary, and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif stated mid-Jan that an investigation into the crash had started and several arrests had been made. Meawhile, President Hassan Rouhani said that those found culpable “should be punished”.
