A Madrid court has issued arrest warrants against three US soldiers it held responsible for the death of a Spanish television cameraman during the Iraq war. Lieutenant Colonel Philip de Camp, Captain Philip Wolford and Sergeant Shawn Gibson of the US army are wanted for questioning as suspects in the killing of José Couso.
"I order the ... capture and arrest of the US soldiers, with a view to extradition," said Judge Santiago Pedraz, an investigating magistrate at the National Court. The judge said he had issued the warrant because the US government had not responded to his requests for cooperation as he investigated Couso's death. It was "the only way of ensuring the suspects became available to Spanish judicial authorities, given the complete lack of cooperation" from the US, he said.
The soldiers have not been formally indicted, but should Judge Pedraz decide evidence against them is strong enough for a trial, they can face jail sentences of up to 20 years for murder and "crimes against the international community". The Couso family's lawyer, Pilar Hermoso, felt it was unlikely that the US would extradite the soldiers but argued that they could be arrested if they travelled to another country.
José Couso, who worked for the Spanish television network Telecinco, was killed on April 8, 2003 when a tank crew of the US army's 3rd Infantry Division fired a shell on Hotel Palestine in Baghdad. Reuters cameraman Taras Portsyuk, a Ukrainian, also died in the shelling. The hotel, which was attacked the day before Baghdad fell, was home to most of the foreign journalists covering the battle. Portsyuk died on the spot, while Couso succumbed to shrapnel injuries in the hospital.
"Most of the international press was in Hotel Palestine, where they had gone from Hotel Rashid, following the Pentagon's own recommendations," the judge said.
A US state department official had said earlier this year: "I just cannot imagine how any US soldier can be subject to some kind of foreign proceeding for criminal liability when he is in a tank in a war zone as part of an international coalition." A US army report last year had absolved the soldiers, justifying that the shelling was aimed at "what was believed to be an enemy firing platform and observation point."
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had, in a report, concluded that though the attack was not deliberate, it could have been avoided. The CPJ said the Pentagon knew the hotel was housing journalists but failed to pass on the information to the tank unit. "There is simply no evidence to support the official US position that American troops were returning hostile fire from the Palestine Hotel."
The Couso family had reacted, "If they’re capable of murdering a journalist with credentials like our brother in the very centre of Baghdad in full view of the international community, what won’t they do to civilians or supposed enemies who get in their way?"
More than 100 members of the news media have died since the war began in March 2003. More than half were murdered by insurgents and other unidentified gunmen and bombers. American firepower is the next most significant cause of death.
Shortly after US forces shot down a Reuters cameraman in Baghdad in August this year, the Brussels-based International News Safety Institute (INSI) had said, "There is no firm evidence that US forces have deliberately targeted the news media. But there is widespread suspicion that American troops do not take adequate precautions to try to ensure the safety of journalists. None of the other Coalition forces has killed any journalists."
