Andreas Schueller, right, and Soenke Hilbrans, lawyers representing the complainants in the proceedings concerning U.S. drone missions via Ramstein, wait in the Federal Constitutional Court for the verdict to be announced, in Karlsruhe, Germany, Tuesday July 15, 2025. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)
The Second Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court, from left: Thomas Offenloch, Astrid Wallrabenstein, Ulrich Maidowski, Doris K枚nig (Chairwoman of the Second Senate), Christine Langenfeld, Rhona Fetzer, Peter Frank, announce the verdict on U.S. drone missions via Ramstein, in Karlsruhe, Germany, Tuesday July 15, 2025. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)
Top German court rejects case over US drone strikes in Yemen assisted by base in Germany
BERLIN (AP) 鈥 Germany’s highest court on Tuesday rejected a case brought by Yemeni plaintiffs who argued the German government failed in a duty to protect relatives who they say were killed in a 2012 drone strike against an attack controlled with help from a U.S. military base in Germany.
Andreas Schueller, right, and Soenke Hilbrans, lawyers representing the complainants in the proceedings concerning U.S. drone missions via Ramstein, wait in the Federal Constitutional Court for the verdict to be announced, in Karlsruhe, Germany, Tuesday July 15, 2025. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)
BERLIN (AP) 鈥 Germany’s highest court on Tuesday rejected a case brought by Yemeni plaintiffs who argued the German government failed in a duty to protect relatives who they say were killed in a 2012 drone strike against an attack controlled with help from a U.S. military base in Germany.
Ruling in a case that has been making its way through the German judicial system for over a decade, the Federal Constitutional Court found the German government can have a concrete duty to protect foreign citizens abroad in some cases.
But it said that only could apply when there is a 鈥渟ufficient connection鈥 to the German state’s authority and 鈥渁 serious danger of systematic violation鈥 of international law. It found the case at hand didn’t fulfill the requirements.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
The plaintiffs argued the U.S. military’s Ramstein Air Base in southwestern Germany plays a key role in relaying flight control data used for armed drone strikes in Yemen via a satellite relay station set up with the knowledge and approval of the German government.
A lower court that the German government had partial responsibility to ensure U.S. drone strikes controlled with help from Ramstein are in line with international law, but judges stopped short of ordering the ban human rights activists had called for. The following year, a federal court overturned the ruling.
The supreme court said the evidence submitted didn’t lead to the conclusion the U.S. applied criteria that were unacceptable under international law in determining legitimate military targets in Yemen.
The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, which argued the case for the Yemeni plaintiffs, said 鈥渁t a time when the adherence of state action to international law is increasingly being called into question, the court has failed to send a strong signal,鈥 adding that 鈥渋ndividual legal protection remains a theoretical possibility without practical consequences.鈥
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