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Son lodges action against Germany and US over father's alleged drone killing
Source: The Guardian
Son lodges action against Germany and US over father's alleged drone killing
Alice Ross and Ian Cobain
Monday 21 September 2015 17.02 BST
A Somali man has launched a legal action accusing the United States and Germany of complicity in his father’s death, claiming he was a civilian bystander killed in a US drone strike.
The man, named in court documents only as “CD”, claims that his father, a camel herder – named as “AB” – died in an attack in southern Somalia in February 2012 that targeted a former British citizen suspected of being a member of the Islamist terrorist group al-Shabaab.
Lawyers for CD, whose case is being brought forward with the help of the Open Society Justice Initiative, a charity founded by George Soros, allege Germany “plays an indispensable role in secret drone killings in Somalia” by allowing bases on its soil to be used for drone operations beyond internationally recognised war zones. They claim this makes it jointly responsible for the “unlawful covert killing”.
According to lawyers, drone strikes in Somalia are conducted by pilots in the US using remotely operated aircraft launched from Djibouti – the tiny country to Somalia’s north – but the data streams on which the drones rely are funnelled through Ramstein air base, a facility in western Germany.
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Alice Ross and Ian Cobain
Monday 21 September 2015 17.02 BST
A Somali man has launched a legal action accusing the United States and Germany of complicity in his father’s death, claiming he was a civilian bystander killed in a US drone strike.
The man, named in court documents only as “CD”, claims that his father, a camel herder – named as “AB” – died in an attack in southern Somalia in February 2012 that targeted a former British citizen suspected of being a member of the Islamist terrorist group al-Shabaab.
Lawyers for CD, whose case is being brought forward with the help of the Open Society Justice Initiative, a charity founded by George Soros, allege Germany “plays an indispensable role in secret drone killings in Somalia” by allowing bases on its soil to be used for drone operations beyond internationally recognised war zones. They claim this makes it jointly responsible for the “unlawful covert killing”.
According to lawyers, drone strikes in Somalia are conducted by pilots in the US using remotely operated aircraft launched from Djibouti – the tiny country to Somalia’s north – but the data streams on which the drones rely are funnelled through Ramstein air base, a facility in western Germany.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/21/son-man-killed-drone-strike-lodges-legal-action-against-united-states-germany
