Iran Says Final Dena Communications Show Frigate Was Unarmed

By Staff, Agencies

The head of Iran’s Center for Lawyers of the Judiciary, Hassan Abdollianpour, said an audio recording of the final communications involving the Iranian destroyer Dena before it was attacked by the US Navy shows the vessel was unarmed and on a training mission.

Speaking Wednesday, Abdollianpour said the recording contains final exchanges between the Dena, a US naval vessel, and Sri Lanka’s shipping and ports authorities.

“In this conversation, it is stated that ‘we are not military, we are not armed and we have come for training,’ and the Sri Lankan side also confirms this,” he said.

Abdollianpour stressed that access to the final communications was important for preparing what he described as an accurate legal case and defense concerning the attack. He said the recordings were obtained after extensive efforts and have also been used in a documentary.

He argued that under international law, assistance should have been provided to personnel aboard the vessel even if it had been targeted. “Not only was no assistance provided, but a second attack was also carried out,” he said.

The Dena, a Moudge-class frigate, was torpedoed and sunk by the US Navy submarine USS Charlotte in international waters off Galle, Sri Lanka, on March 4.

The vessel was returning to Iran after participating in the International Fleet Review 2026 in India, a multinational naval exercise to which Iran had been officially invited.

According to the supplied account, the frigate was approximately 19 nautical miles off Galle when it was struck by a Mark 48 torpedo. It was carrying 136 crew members, 104 of whom were martyred and 32 injured.

Abdollianpour said the Center for Lawyers of the Judiciary is pursuing the case “firmly and decisively” and has compiled extensive documentation for domestic and international legal proceedings.

He said around 130,000 pages of expert assessments concerning war incidents and damages had been prepared with the cooperation of nearly 19,000 experts.

He added that the documentation was not intended solely for domestic courts, but also to provide standardized evidence for pursuing the case before international courts and legal bodies.