Far-left Die Linke party claims German gov’t complicit as Ramstein relay base used in January drone strike
A criminal complaint had been filed against German Chancellor Angela Merkel and several minister with her government over the role Germany allegedly played in Qasem Soleimani’s killing, Germany’s far-left Die Linke (“Left”) party announced Thursday.
The complaint was filed by eight MPs and is focused on the US Air Force’s massive Ramstein base in western Germany, believed to host a satellite relay station used to control American drones in the skies over Africa and the Middle East.
“The control signals for the drone attack (that killed Soleimani) can only have been transmitted via a satellite relay station on German territory, the US airbase in Ramstein,” Die Linke’s MP Alexander Neu said in a statement.
A copy of the criminal complaint Neu posted to his website targets Chancellor Angela Merkel, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and “other members of the federal government”.
January’s drone strike in Iraq against Soleimani, a key Iranian general, brought Washington and Tehran to the brink of war for the second time in a year.
The Left accuses Merkel and her ministers of “abetting through negligence” Soleimani’s killing.
“We cannot continue to accept that the federal government itself breaks international law by enabling and supporting the illegal US drone war,” Neu said.