KARLSRUHE, Germany, March 30 (UPI) -- Germany's highest court Friday rejected a bid by a far-left party to prevent the deployment of eight German surveillance jets to help NATO in Afghanistan.
The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe denied a request to stop the mission from the Left Party, a far-left group in Germany's Parliament, thus removing the final obstacle for the deployment of the jets to help NATO forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Yet the court said it would hear formal arguments from the Left Party on April 18, at a time when the eight Tornado reconnaissance jets are expected to already be in Afghanistan to aid the International Security Assistance Force. The jets could arrive in Afghanistan as early as April 5, according to media reports, and observers say it is unlikely that the court will decide in favor of the Left Party.
The party said NATO was violating international law in Afghanistan, citing a gradual transformation of the military defense union into an "offensive alliance for global intervention."
Left Party members fear the German reconnaissance jets, by relaying coordinates for bombing targets, will be directly involved in illegal war actions.
Earlier this month the German Parliament endorsed government plans to send eight Panavia Tornado reconnaissance aircraft -- six in constant flying, with two backup planes -- and roughly 500 additional soldiers to Afghanistan to aid the NATO-led ISAF.
Germany currently has about 3,000 soldiers stationed with ISAF, but they are confined to relatively peaceful northern Afghanistan. The jets could be deployed all over the country.
