Pakistan court orders case against CIA member for drone deaths News
Pakistan court orders case against CIA member for drone deaths

[JURIST] Pakistan’s Islamabad High Court (IHC) [official website] on Tuesday issued an order to register a report against former CIA station chief Jonathan Banks for his involvement in a 2009 US drone attack that killed two tribesmen. The court’s order was issued in response [Express Tribune report] to anti-drone activist Haji Abdul Karim Khan’s petition, filed because his brother and son were killed in the drone strike in the North Waziristan tribal area. The IHC has ordered Inspector General (IG) Islamabad Tahir Alam Khan to file the murder case in two previous hearings, but police did not comply. The court dismissed [Pakistan Herald report] the IG’s claims that a case would affect foreign policy with the US, and once again ordered the case filed. The IHC also disregarded the Deputy Attorney General’s position and a lower court’s dismissal on the grounds that the IHC has no jurisdiction over the matter because the drone strike was carried out in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas [official website].

The use of drones [JURIST backgrounder] is controversial in both the international arena and in domestic circles. Last March the UN General Assembly passed a resolution [JURIST report] urging states to comply with international law in the use of armed drone strikes. UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism Ben Emmerson called for transparency and accountability [JURIST report] in the use of drones in counter-terrorism operations in his report in October 2013. A joint Human Rights Watch and International Human Rights Clinic report [text, PDF] also raised possible threats to human rights, such as the right to life, in law enforcement situations. In the US at the same time, California refused to limit drone use in domestic law enforcement when its governor vetoed a bill [JURIST report] that would have required enforcement agencies to acquire warrants to use drones for surveillance.

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