{"id":13577,"date":"2019-03-13T16:21:58","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T16:21:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reprieve.org.uk\/?post_type=press&p=13577"},"modified":"2021-03-22T09:58:45","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T09:58:45","slug":"german-court-to-hear-drones-complicity-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reprieve.org\/uk\/2019\/03\/13\/german-court-to-hear-drones-complicity-case\/","title":{"rendered":"German court to hear drones complicity case"},"content":{"rendered":"

A German court is set to decide whether the Government is breaking the law by allowing the US to use Ramstein military base for its covert drone programme.<\/p>\n

Faisal Bin Ali Jaber<\/a>, a Yemeni engineer, has brought the claim with two of his family members, with help from Reprieve<\/a> and ECCHR (European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights). Faisal\u2019s brother-in-law, Salem bin ali Jaber, was an imam who preached against Al Qaeda just days before the US killed him and his nephew, Waleed, a policeman, in August 2012.<\/p>\n

Ramstein air base in Western Germany plays a critical role in the US drone programme by providing the satellite relay infrastructure – without this the drone programme wouldn’t be possible. The court will tomorrow consider whether the German government is violating its constitution by allowing the US to use Ramstein for such strikes.<\/p>\n

The case, if successful, would mark the first time a European country was found to be acting illegally in its support for the US programme and would send warning signals to other European countries that similarly support and facilitate the US\u2019s drone programme, such as the UK.<\/p>\n

UK personnel have played a \u201ccrucial and sustained role\u201d in the programme, with UK officials reportedly taking part in so-called \u201chits\u201d, \u201ctriangular[ing]\u201d intelligence for targets lists, \u201ctasking targets\u201d via Menwith Hill<\/a>, a base in Yorkshire, and by participating in a \u201cjoint operations room\u201d<\/a> with US and Yemeni forces in support of strikes.<\/p>\n

The UK government has admitted that it works \u201cwith allies\u201d to \u201cnegate the threat\u201d, but has refused to answer further questions, including on what role UK bases are playing, the legal frameworks around intelligence sharing for such strikes, and whether any safeguards exist. Parliament\u2019s Joint Committee on Human Rights in 2016  raised concerns that the UK Government demonstrated a \u201cmisunderstanding of the legal frameworks that apply\u201d to the use of armed drones outside of war zones and warned that UK support for the US programme could potentially expose ministers and others to risk of criminal prosecution.<\/p>\n

As part of Faisal’s case, the court will consider whether President Trump\u2019s continued efforts to erode transparency and safeguards around the use of drones should be factored into the German Government\u2019s responsibility to protect people\u2019s right to life. Last week, it was revealed that President Trump has scrapped an Obama-era regulation<\/a> forcing the government to publicly report the number of civilians killed in US drone strikes outside war zones.<\/p>\n

Faisal\u2019s relatives were offered a bag containing $100,000 in US dollar bills as compensation, but the US has never admitted responsibility<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Faisal bin ali Jaber<\/strong>, said: \u201cI brought this case because I don\u2019t want any other families to suffer the way that mine has. Losing innocent family members, by mistake, to a US drone strike is something that no one should have to go through. The US drone programme could not function without support from European countries like Germany and the UK. It is long past time these Governments stepped up to prevent more innocent people being killed by US drones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennifer Gibson<\/a>, staff attorney at Reprieve<\/strong>, said: \u201cThe US drone programme has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent families like Faisal\u2019s – people who were illegally killed far from battlefields, without due process and because of faulty intelligence. Until now, European countries have been hiding in the shadows, denying the crucial role they play in this US killing programme. When Faisal\u2019s case comes before the court tomorrow, he puts European countries like Germany and the UK on notice. They must hold President Trump to account, and stop being complicit in these crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A German court is set to decide whether the Government is breaking the law by allowing the US to use Ramstein military base for its covert drone programme. Faisal Bin Ali Jaber, a Yemeni engineer, has brought the claim with two of his family members, with help from Reprieve and ECCHR (European Centre for Constitutional and Human … <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":18055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGerman court to hear drones complicity case<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/reprieve.org\/uk\/2019\/03\/13\/german-court-to-hear-drones-complicity-case\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"German court to hear drones complicity case\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A German court is set to decide whether the Government is breaking the law by allowing the US to use Ramstein military base for its covert drone programme. 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