Yemen Monitor/Agencies:
The German Constitutional Court on Tuesday considered a 10-year-old lawsuit filed by two Yemeni citizens who held Berlin responsible for missions carried out by US armed drones in Yemen, launching from the Ramstein US base in western Germany.
The Yemenis hail from Hadramaut in eastern Yemen and lost family members during a US drone strike on the village of Khashamir on August 29, 2012.
The plaintiffs want to compel the German government to intervene with the US to force it to respect international law and protect them from these strikes.
Although drones do not take off or are directed from Ramstein, signals are sent via cable from the US to the base, and from there are retransmitted through a satellite uplink station.
In a statement on Tuesday, the German Defense Ministry emphasized that “Berlin has repeatedly received assurances that drones will not be launched, directed, or controlled from Germany and that the US armed forces will respect the applicable law in their activities.”
Doris König, the vice president of the court, said at the beginning of today’s session that the question that arises in this case is whether the fundamental right to life and physical integrity “imposes on German state authorities the obligation to provide protection outside territorial borders for individuals in Yemen” when armed drones are sent on missions using German territory.
The case has gone through lengthy legal proceedings before being brought before the Supreme Court judges, and the court is expected to issue a ruling on it within months.
The lawsuit dates back to 2014 when German Chancellor Angela Merkel was in power, and Washington was regularly launching drone strikes in Yemen, particularly to combat al-Qaeda elements.
A court in Münster, western Germany, had dismissed the plaintiffs’ lawsuit but asked Berlin to take “appropriate measures” to ensure that the US respects international law during these missions and avoids civilians.
The German authorities appealed to the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig (east), which dismissed the lawsuit in 2020.
The plaintiffs then filed a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court, with the support of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights and the Reprieve human rights organization.
Source: French
