A trespassing by 14 anti-war activists on an airbase in Nevada is likely to lead to a judicial review of US drone attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan as a judge agreed on Wednesday not to treat their act as a simple misdemeanour.

The 14 were arrested in 2009 at Creech Air Force Base near Las Vegas while protesting the use of drones in the Pak-Afghan region that are controlled from the base. They pleaded not guilty.
One of the defendants, Kathy Kelly, argued in a Las Vegas court on Wednesday that they were trespassing out of necessity and assembling peacefully. Some of the anti-war activists succeeded in convincing the judge to hold a full hearing on the use of drones rather than treating it as a simple trespassing case. The judge said he would take three to four months to study the issues and testimonies involved before making a decision.