Karim Popal

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Karim Popal (* 1957 ) is an Afghanistan lawyer in Bremen . He became known because he represents the victims of the air attack in Kunduz ordered by the Bundeswehr .

job

Karim Popal comes from Afghanistan and fled to Germany in 1976 at the age of 19. He speaks the Afghan languages Persian and Pashto fluently. After studying law in Bremen, he was admitted to the bar in 1992. He specialized in international family law, international civil law and immigration law. Popal is helping to build the judiciary in Afghanistan after the Taliban were driven out. He taught prosecutors, judges and lawyers there.

Popal is a member of the residence law working group of the Bremen Bar Association , a member of the German Bar Association and legal advisor to several foreign associations in Germany (including the umbrella organization Schura Bremen and the Muslim Council ).

Kunduz process

On September 4, 2009, German Colonel Georg Klein launched an air raid on two tank trucks hijacked by the Taliban near Kunduz . Karim Popal made it his task to research the background of the incident and to represent the civilian victims. On November 27, 2009, he said he had found 179 civilian casualties, including 134 dead, in the course of two trips to the area of ​​the air strike. Together with other lawyers, referring to the mandates given to him, he demanded compensation from the federal government. The Ministry of Defense confirmed that it wanted to provide “quick” and “unbureaucratic” aid to the civilian victims and their bereaved families.

Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg criticized Popal's mandate in April 2010. After weeks of dispute, the defense minister broke off the compensation negotiations with Popal. The defense minister rejected the proposal by lawyer Karim Popal to use the compensation of several million euros for projects in the Char Darah region near Kunduz. The compensation negotiations should then be conducted by the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Development directly with the tribal elders on site.

According to the Defense Ministry, Popal had stated up to this point that he represented 80 relatives of victims of the bombing. According to the weekly newspaper Die Zeit , a human rights organization later approached the ministry and spoke for some of the same clients.

Popal also suggested building a widow's house, an orphanage and a carpet-making factory in Char Darah with the government money. The Ministry of Defense stated that such large-scale projects would quickly become targets for radical Islamic Taliban. The ministry then looked for funding for smaller projects in the region.

After the federal government had already granted the families of the victims 5,000 US dollars without recognition of a legal obligation, which, according to Popal and the chairman of the IALANA legal organization , Otto Jäckel, did not reach the families in many cases, Popal wants with the support of several German lawyers win 33,000 US dollars (around 23,000 euros) per victim in a civil law process before a German court.

criticism

Karim Popal came under fire for statements made during one of his visits to Afghanistan. According to research by the SWR magazine Report Mainz , he accused the international troops in Afghanistan of arbitrary killings during talks in Kunduz . The TV magazine doubted his figures on victims and clients. According to the Mainz report, village elders in Kunduz have distanced themselves from the lawyer. Popal then said in Bremen: "I absolutely reject these allegations."

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lawyer speaks of 179 civilian victims. Spiegel Online, November 27, 2009, accessed December 4, 2009 .
  2. ↑ Matthias Gebauer: The difficult way to compensation. Spiegel Online, December 8, 2009, accessed January 12, 2010 .
  3. ↑ Tanker truck bombing: Guttenberg terminates the cooperation with Kunduz victim lawyer. On: time online. April 12, 2010.
  4. ↑ Harald Neuber: Kunduz attack comes before German courts. In: Telepolis. September 1, 2011, accessed September 1, 2011 .
  5. ↑ Serious allegations against lawyer for the Kunduz victims. On: stern.de , January 11, 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Popal, Karim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Afghanistan