MADRID – For the second time, Spain’s National Court on Tuesday quashed indictments against three U.S. soldiers for the 2003 death in Baghdad of Spanish television cameraman Jose Couso.

Members of the court’s criminal chamber also ordered colleague Santiago Pedraz to close the case file.

Couso died on April 8, 2003, when a U.S. Army tank fired on Baghdad’s Palestine Hotel, the base of operations for most of the international press covering the war.

Killed along with Couso was Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk, a Ukrainian citizen.

Judge Pedraz had indicted Sgt. Thomas Gibson, Capt. Philip Wolford and Lt. Col. Philip de Camps in 2007 on premeditated murder and other charges, but his fellow National Court judges threw out the indictments a year later.

The judge, however, subsequently reopened the case and took sworn statements from Spain’s former ministers of defense, Federico Trillo, and foreign affairs, Ana Palacio, that ultimately formed the basis of Pedraz’s decision to re-indict the Americans in May of this year.

Tuesday’s ruling quashing the indictments came in response to a motion from the Spanish Attorney General’s Office.

The U.S. Army said soldiers mistakenly thought the people they saw on the roof of the Palestine Hotel were acting as spotters for Iraqis firing on advancing American troops, but critics point out that U.S. commanders were aware of the presence of reporters at the hotel. EFE