From Reuters.
MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish High Court judge issued international arrest warrants on Wednesday for three U.S. soldiers in connection with the death of a Spanish cameraman during the war in Iraq.
"I order the ... capture and arrest of the U.S. soldiers, with a view to extradition," High Court Judge Santiago Pedraz said in a court document, adding the order would be submitted to the international police organization Interpol.
The three men were named as Sergeant Thomas Gibson, Captain Philip Wolford and Lieutenant Colonel Philip De Camp.
The United States has cleared the men of any blame, although it acknowledges a shell was fired from their tank into the Palestine Hotel where Telecinco cameraman Jose Couso and Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk were killed. A U.S. investigation concluded the men were justified in opening fire.
Three other Reuters staff were seriously injured in the shelling of the hotel, the base for almost all foreign journalists in Baghdad at the time. The incident occurred a day before U.S. troops captured the city.
Pedraz said an investigation had shown the three soldiers involved in the tank attack on April 8, 2003 could be responsible for murder and crimes against the international community.
The charges carry jail sentences of 15 to 20 years and 10 to 15 years respectively.
The judge said he issued the warrants because U.S. authorities had refused to cooperate. The court had twice asked American officials for help, requesting documents and offering to send a legal team to the United States to take statements from the three men.
But neither request had been answered and he said the warrants were "the only effective measure to ensure the accused are made available to Spanish judicial authorities."
U.S. officials have said it is very unlikely their soldiers will be allowed to be questioned by a foreign court.
"I just cannot imagine how any U.S. 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 U.S. State Department official, who asked not to be named, said in June.
The High Court took up the case after Couso's family filed a complaint. It would have jurisdiction only over his death.
Spain has a record of tackling controversial human rights cases. The High Court failed to extradite former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet but earlier this year convicted Argentine former navy captain Adolfo Scilingo for crimes against humanity for his role in that country's so-called dirty war.
