BERLIN – The European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of Germany on Tuesday in a dispute with Afghan civilians who questioned the country’s investigation into an attack on oil tankers in Afghanistan in 2009 that killed up to 90 civilians.
In its ruling, the Strasbourg, France-based court found that the German investigation into the bombing did not violate the European Convention on Human Rights.
On the night of the attack, Taliban fighters hijacked two tankers carrying NATO fuel, but they were stranded on a sandbar in the Kunduz River, about four miles from the NATO base in Kunduz, Afghanistan.
Colonel Georg Klein, who was serving as the commander of the NATO base in Kunduz at the time, called US military planes to bomb the tankers. He believed that there were only insurgents in the area and feared the Taliban might use them to carry out attacks. But dozens of local Afghans had flooded the tanks after the Taliban invited them to suck up fuel. An investigation by the German army later found that up to 90 civilians had been killed.
Abdul Hanan, who lost his sons Abdul Bayan (12) and Nesarullah (8) as part of the NATO air strike ordered by Colonel Klein on September 3, 2009, brought the case to the European court after several complaints in the German judicial system.
The court found that the Federal Prosecutor’s Office decision to close an investigation into the commanding general was justified “because at the time the airstrike was ordered he was convinced that no civilians were present at the scene of the attack”.
The German Bundestag carried out a public investigation into the bombing, which was also contested in several German courts. Mr. Hanan had argued that Germany was protecting Colonel Klein and others whom he claimed were responsible for covering up the air strike.
