- Title: Iranian activists in Cologne mourn Ukrainian plane crash victims
- Date: 11th January 2020
- Summary: COLOGNE, GERMANY (JANUARY 11, 2020) (REUTERS) CANDLES AT MAKE-SHIFT MEMORIAL SHRINE FOR VICTIMS OF IRANIAN PLANE CRASH
- Embargoed: 25th January 2020 14:45
- Keywords: Iran crash military plane protest threat war
- Location: COLOGNE, GERMANY
- City: COLOGNE, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Reuters ID: LVA001BVQAB0N
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Hundreds of exiled Iranians living in Germany, who support the opposition People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), mourned the victims of the Ukrainian airliner crash with a minute of silence on Saturday (January 11).
The exiled Iranians placed flowers at a casket with the sign reading 'We mourn the 176 victims of the shot-down passenger plane in Iran'.
The PMOI began as a group of Islamist leftists opposed to Iran's late Shah but fell out with Shi'ite clerics who took power after the 1979 revolution. The PMOI's leader, Massoud Rajavi, has not been seen since 2003. His wife, Maryam Rajavi, still lives in exile in France but has remained the the leader of National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which has supported U.S. sanctions on Iran.
Saturday's protest in Cologne was meant to be in solidarity with the opposition in Iran and the threat of a war in the region after the recent violence, was overshadowed by the crash of a Boeing plane on Wednesday (January 8) that was destined for Kiev.
Iran said on Saturday its military had mistakenly shot down the Ukrainian plane, saying air defences were fired in error while on alert in the tense aftermath of Iranian missile strikes on U.S. targets in Iraq.
Iran had denied for days after Wednesday's crash that it brought down the plane, although a top Revolutionary Guards commander said on Saturday that he had informed the authorities about the unintentional missile strike the same day it happened.
(Production: Stephane Nitschke, Ute Swart) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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