The family of José Couso, Telecinco camera, has held an act in Ferrol to denounce that his death was a war crime
The photojournalist’s family waits for the European Court of Human Rights to rule
David, brother of José Couso, and the journalist Carlos Hernández have remembered the Spanish cameraman
The family of José Couso, Chamber of Telecincohas held a act in Ferrol to report that his death was not an accident, but a war crime that continues unpunished. You killed and projectile shot by a tank US against a hotel where there were journalists at the decision-making Bagdad he April 8, 2003. They are cause was archived in 2019 and his family appealed it to the European Court of Human Rights. Now they wait for that court to pass sentence.
“Today we are going to start by remembering a colleague forgotten by the Spanish justice and forgotten, to a greater or lesser extent by all governments that there has been in these 20 years since his death in the Iraq war”, the presenter Roberto Arce said from the set of ‘Cuatro al día’, before giving way to the statements of David, brother of José Cousoand of Carlos Hernandezone of the Spanish journalists who were in the Palestine Hotels that tragic morning, that they have remembered what happened since the death of the cameraman.
What happened the day of the attack?
“José Couso he was above all a great photojournalistI had a lot experience and it was not reckless, I did not risk unnecessarily”, recalled the journalist Carlos Hernández, who commented that Couso told him: “Carlos, we cannot leave here, there must be someone to tell what is happening here, to be of somehow the eyes of the world”.
He himself has assured that he could not believe that the Americans had shot at them because “they knew perfectly well that there were journalists”: “The moment of the attack was very hard. I perfectly remember that April 8, 2003. The American armored vehicles had been on that bridge for hours, which was over the Tigris River. The first thing I thought was that it had been an Iraqi attack. It did not cross my mind that it could have been those American armored vehicles because I knew that they were looking at us, they knew perfectly well that there were journalists. I know that therefore if they shot at us, they were going to kill journalists.”
The US versions and the obstacles to the investigation
“They told us until four versions. That they had received shots from the roof of the hotel, from the hall, that they had captured an Iraqi Army lookout… ”, commented his brother David Couso.
Son “lieslies and more lies ”, Hernández denounced.
“It seems to me that war is a dangerous place. No one would intentionally kill a journalist,” the US government said at the time. Meanwhile, Hernández explained, “all the governments from that moment, first the Government of José María Aznar, then the Government of Zapatero and then the Government of Mariano Rajoy put all kinds of obstacles in the judicial investigation”.
In 2005, Judge Pedraz issued an order to search and seizure against the three US soldiers involved in the shooting at the Palestine Hotel. Then, “since they could no longer stop justice, what the government of Mariano Rajoy did was directly change the law: it ended the so-called universal justice and prevented the judge from continuing with the investigation,” he said.
Thus, Pedro Piqueras reported at the time, “judge Santiago Pedraz has had no choice but to archive the investigation and lift the search and capture order against the three soldiers responsible.”
“Depending on who is shooting at you, they either stroke your back or kneel before the person shooting. In our case, we have seen an attitude of genuflection and vassalship and contempt for a Spanish citizen”, lamented Couso’s brother.
Therefore, “we have been invited to resort to a body that is the European Court of Rights in Strasbourg”.
With this, the journalist comments, “I really trust that, once again, the justice came to Spain from Europe. The murder of José Couso should not go unpunished. It is a fight for freedom of the press, for freedom of information and against impunity, especially against impunity in wars”.
“We hope that the name of José Couso will serve and cause a precedent so that it does not happen again or if it does happen that the culprits can be investigated and found and it is truly demonstrated that there was no powers that are unpunished and that they have that immunity”, David Couso wished.
