Facts
Based at Fort Stewart (Georgia), Philip Wolford joined the army in 1995 after attending school in Marysville (Ohio), where he was a member of the Reserve Officer Training Corps. Wolford was Captain of the 3rd Infantry Division of the US army in Iraq when the alleged facts occurred.
On the morning of 8 April 2003, Sergeant Shawn Gibson, the commander of a 3rd Infantry Division M-1 Abrams tank positioned on the Al-Jumhuriya Bridge in Baghdad fired on the Palestine Hotel, a base from where numerous foreign journalists covered the Iraq war. José Couso, a cameraman for the Spanish network Telecinco, and Taras Protsyuk, a Ukrainian cameraman for Reuters, were killed after the tank fired the high-explosive shell at the Palestine Hotel.
A U.S. military investigation in August 2003 cleared Wolford and the other two soldiers, Sergeant Shawn Gibson and Lieutenant Colonel Philip DeCamp, of wrongdoing, saying they acted properly because they believed they were firing on enemy troops.
Yet, another investigation from the Committee to Protect Journalists underlined that no evidence was found of enemy shot coming from the Palestine Hotel. However, this investigation concluded to the non-intentionality of the crimes.
Procedure
In late 2003, the Spanish National Court (Audiencia Nacional, Sala de lo penal), acting on a request from Couso’s family, opened an investigation against Sergeant Gibson, Captain Wolford and Lieutenant Colonel DeCamp and on 19 October 2005, three international arrest warrants were issued. The US Department of Justice denied a Spanish request to question the three American soldiers on American territory.
The case was closed a first time on March 2006. In December 2006, the Spanish National Court granted an appeal by the killed journalist’s family against the closure of proceedings. DeCamp, Gibson and Wolford were indicted on 27 April 2007 on charges of homicide and war crimes. Yet, on 14 July 2009, the Spanish National Court decided to close the case due to lack of evidence.
On 13 July 2010, the Spanish Supreme Court ordered to reopen the investigation and on 4 October 2011 Judge Pedraz indicted once again Gibson, Wolford and DeCamp on charges of war crimes. The Judge ordered each of them to post a bail of 1 million Euros as a guarantee for the reparation proceedings. In the same decision the Judge ordered to open an investigation for command responsibility against General Buford Blount and Colonel David Perkins, hierarchic superiors of Lieutenant Colonel DeCamp.
On 5 June 2014 the Criminal Chamber of the Spanish National Court ruled that the investigation could be pursued, despite the new legislation on universal jurisdiction of 2014. Yet, on 9 June 2015, this decision was annulled and the case closed. The decision to close the case was confirmed by the Criminal Chamber of the National Court on 25 November 2015, then, on appeal, by the Supreme Court on 25 October 2016, both stating that the case could be reopened if the new procedural requirements were met (if the suspects came to Spanish territory, for example).
In the end of October 2016, the family of José Couso has announced its intention to bring the matter before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
On 25 July 2024, the European Court of Human Rights rejected the appeal of the family of José Couso. The Court has unanimously ruled that the dismissal of the case in Spain following the national reform of universal jurisdiction does not constitute a violation of the right of access to a court within the meaning of article 6, paragraph 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights.