Jordan refuses Germany’s ‘immunity’ request for troops
11:36, 27/08/2017, SundayU: Update: 11:38, 27/08/2017, Sunday
Yeni Şafak
File photo
German and Jordanian governments have not reached an agreement on Germany’s “immunity” request for their troops at the air base in Azraq
Germany has requested “immunity” for its troops deployed in Jordan after withdrawing them from Turkey’s İncirlik Air Base, but an agreement is yet to be reached between the German and Jordanian governments, according to reports.
Der Spiegel claimed in an article titled, lSharia for German soldiers," that there has been a disagreement between the two countries on the status of the soldiers that started to be deployed in Jordan.
Germany reportedly is aiming to have complete immunity for the nearly 250 soldiers that will be deployed at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan’s Azraq within the scope of the fight against Daesh, and no agreement has yet been reached in the negotiations of the “status of forces agreement” conducted by the German Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry officials.
The article notes Sharia is one of the sources of Jordan’s law system, and the death sentence applied in the country is a delicate subject for Berlin.
The German government last year had a similar problem about deploying German troops in Qatar, and this disagreement was overcome with a regulation that “in case a German soldier commits a crime in Qatar, he will immediately be sent back to his country.”
Germay decided to withdraw its troops from İncirlik Air Base in June this year following the political tension between Turkey and Germany, and transferred nearly 100 German troops from İncirlik to Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan in July with a squirt.
Some 150 military personnel are expected to take office at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in October at the latest, with four Tornado scout airplanes withdrawn from İncirlik Air Base.