The German Federal Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday that Germany did not violate international law by failing to strictly monitor or prevent US drone attacks carried out with the help of signals from the Ramstein air base.

The ruling comes after two Yemenis who say they had family members killed in a US drone attack in their home country more than 10 years ago, invoking the right to life and physical integrity enshrined in the German constitution in a complaint to the court.

What did the court say?

The court did state that Germany had a certain obligation to protect basic human rights even of foreigners living abroad.

However, it said it had been unable to establish that the US had employed unjustifiable criteria in its differentiation between military targets and civilians in its attack.

The court also ruled that any such attack would have to have a sufficient connection to German state authority for the obligation to hold, something that it said could not be claimed in this case.

The ECCHR, who supported the plaintiffs, told DW that it was "unlikely" that they would pursue the case further, for example at the European Court of Human Rights. 

The German government has welcomed the verdict. 

A joint statement by the Foreign and Defense Ministries said that the court had recognized the wide leeway granted to the government in assessing whether an action by a third country conformed to international law.    

The statement said the ruling sent an important signal with regard to Germany's actions in the spheres of foreign affairs and security.  

What was the case against the Ramstein air base?

The two Yemeni men bringing the case, Ahmed and Khalid bin Ali Jaber, said they lost some of their relatives in a US drone strike on the village of Khashamir in 2012 that occurred during a wedding meal of a male family member.

They argued that Germany held partial responsibility for the attack, as the drone mission used signals relayed from the Ramstein base, situated near the city of Kaiserslautern in the southwest.

The two men were supported in their case by the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), which has said: "Without the data that flows through Ramstein, the US cannot fly its combat drones in Yemen."  

Assessing German responsibility 

The case has been before the courts for more than 10 years, being initially rejected in 2015 before a higher administrative court in the city Münster in 2019 ordered the German government to investigate the legality of the US use of the Ramstein airbase for such attacks.

That ruling was then overturned by a federal court.

The German Defense Ministry has argued that Berlin has received repeated assurances from Washington that no drones are launched, controlled or commanded from Germany and that US forces have adhered to international law in their actions.

For years, the US has carried out drone attacks on suspected militants from the terrorist group al-Qaeda in Yemen.

More recently, it has also targeted Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the country, who have been disrupting shipping in the region in attacks they say are in support of Palestinians amid Israel's offensive in Gaza.