The Fourth Section of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the National Court has condemned the State to compensate the family of the Telecinco chamber José Couso killed 16 years ago in Baghdad when US troops opened fire on the Hotel Palestin a, where they were staying the journalists, on April 8, 2003. He considers that Spain omitted its duty to provide diplomatic protection.

The sentence, of which the magistrate Ignacio De la Cueva has been the speaker, establishes that the State must compensate the widow of Couso with 100,000 euros and with 41,000 euros for each of her two children , even minors when the events occurred , for not having taken "actions before another State that has incurred an international offense" in order to obtain reparation for the damage caused by that conduct.

This ruling of the National Court is a judicial success for the family of the chamber , after 16 years litigating to try to bring to justice those responsible for the attack on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. At the same time, the next of kin have already filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to try to reactivate the case , after having exhausted all the channels before the Spanish courts, the last one the Constitutional last June.

The objective of the family is "to seek support for the violation of Human Rights and the loss of protection against changes in Spanish legislation," which has left them, he says, "unable to seek justice in the face of the murder of José Couso ."

With this reform of the law they refer to the restriction of universal justice and what the family denounces before the court based in Strasbourg is that this circumstance has " deprived them of the possibility of articulating an effective remedy that allows the investigation and prosecution of crime. "

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