Air defence commander sentenced for shooting down Ukrainian airliner

The missile strike killed all 176 people on board and came as Tehran and Washington teetered on the brink of war.

The wreckage of the Ukrainian International Airlines plane (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)

An Iranian court has sentenced an air defence commander allegedly responsible for the deadly downing of a passenger plane amid Iran-US tensions three years ago, it has been reported.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard mistakenly shot down the Ukraine International Airlines flight in January 2020.