Top German Court Allows US Air Base Facility to Support Drone Attacks

Karlsruhe, Germany — Germany's top court on Tuesday rejected a constitutional complaint over the government's legal responsibility for US drone attacks carried out in Yemen with the assistance of facilities at a US air base in Ramstein.

The Constitutional Court, based in the south-western city of Karlsruhe, denied the suit brought by two Yemeni nationals whose relatives were killed in a US drone attack in Yemen in 2012.

The complainants took the German government to court, arguing it was partially responsible for what they said were breaches of international law by the United States, as the drone strikes were facilitated by a satellite relay station at the Ramstein air base in western Germany.

In its decision, the court found that while Germany does have a general mandate to protect people abroad from breaches of their fundamental human rights and international law, a duty to protect only arises in certain cases.

In the case of the US drone attacks, the court said "it could not be established that the US applied unjustifiable criteria to distinguish legitimate military targets from protected civilians in the non-international armed conflict in Yemen."

The victims of the 2012 attack were, according to the Yemeni complainants, a police officer and a cleric who had preached against the terrorist group al-Qaeda. They were reportedly killed during a meeting with three suspected al-Qaeda members.

The decision ends a decade-long legal battle in Germany, with the case having been filed in a first-instance court in 2014.

Satellite relay station in place since 2010

The case involved a satellite relay station, which US authorities informed the German Defence Ministry in 2010 they were building on the Ramstein site to assist with controlling unmanned drones.

The Defence Ministry said in December that it was an "ongoing and trusting dialogue" with Washington regarding the use of the air base.

"The German government has repeatedly obtained assurances that unmanned aircraft missions will not be launched, controlled or commanded from Germany in any way and that the US armed forces will comply with applicable law in their activities," it said.

The argument was rejected by lawyer Andreas Schüller from the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), which supported the case.

"All the data travelling to and from the drones passes through Ramstein," he argued. "Ramstein is needed to be able to control them in real time from the US."

The complainants continue to live in Yemen, where drones and attacks were still taking place, Schüller said, describing the situation as "a permanent psychological threat, a threat to their lives."

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