US Disregards International Law,
Says Brother of Murdered Spanish Cameraman
March 26, 2007
Reprinted from Daily Granma
Javier Couso |
MADRID.— Washington is disregarding International Law in the cases of the Cuban Five and the murder of Spanish cameraman Jose Couso in Iraq, charged Couso’s brother.
The accusation was made by Couso during a conference at the University of Alcala de Henares. He was accompanied by fellow writer Andres Sorel and diplomat Freddy Gonzalez, a specialist in the case of the Cuban Five.
This conference is part of a wider effort that is being undertaken in Spanish universities to explain the cases of the Cuban Five (Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez), who are in prisons in the United States.
Couso compared the men’s prosecution with the killing of his brother Jose in Baghdad, who was in the Palestine Hotel filming the crimes being carried out by the invaders when he was fired upon by a US tank.
Although the criminals have been identified and there is proof that it was a murder, the government of the United States refuses to hand them over to the authorities, despite the fact that there is an arrest warrant ordered by a Spanish judge.
Couso insisted that the United States government clearly shows disregard towards international laws by imposing its control in both cases. He denounced the double standard of George W. Bush when he calls himself "an international terrorism fighter."
The speaker moved the audience when explaining the need for immediate and unconditional freedom of the five Cuban prisoners and the application of law and justice in the case of his brother. He said those Cubans’ relatives are also his family.
Sorel criticized the immobilism of the European Union in terms of its foreign policy and its subordination to the United State’s government, which is allowed to do just as it pleases.
Gonzalez gave updates about the present legal situation of the prisoners and asked for support to the campaign to force the United States to grant visas to Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez, Rene and Gerardo’s wives respectively.
Addresses were also delivered at the Carlos III and Madrid’s Alcala de Henares universities. The speakers were Raul Martinez, Francisco García, German Fabra and philosophy professor and writer Carlos Fernandez Liria. | 
