JURIST - Paper Chase: Spain reissues arrest warrant for US soldiers involved in Baghdad hotel attack

[JURIST] Spain's National Court [official website] has reissued a warrant for the arrest of three US soldiers who killed Spanish Telecinco cameraman Jose Couso [Guardian report; advocacy website] in 2003 when their tank opened fire on a hotel in Baghdad. The warrant follows a December Supreme Court reversal [IFEX report] of a March 2006 ruling by a panel of three National Court judges revoking a previous warrant [CNN report] and holding that Spain did not have jurisdiction to try to the case. Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell [official profile] said shortly after the incident that the use of force was justified because the tank was being attacked from hostiles inside the hotel. The warrant lists Sgt. Shawn Gibson, Capt. Philip Wolford and Lt. Col. Philip de Camp as the three soldiers responsible for Couso's death. The US previously denied extradition of the soldiers, and is not now expected to allow the soldiers to be extradited to Spain.

The original warrant was issued [JURIST report] in October 2005 after a Spanish judge stated that US officials had failed to cooperate in an investigation into the incident [JURIST report] and did not respond to requests to question the soldiers [JURIST report]. AP has more.

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