Spanish court orders State to pay substantial compensation for wrongful imprisonment
Spain's Supreme Court has imposed compensation of €2.5 million on the country for holding a Moroccan citizen in prison for 15 years on sexual assault charges that he ultimately proved he did not commit.
Spanish court orders State to pay substantial compensation for wrongful imprisonment
Spain's highest court has ruled in favour of Ahmed Tommouhi, a 75-year-old Moroccan labourer, ordering the country to pay a substantial sum for the damage caused by holding him in custody for a decade and a half for crimes that proved not to be his. The ruling, issued by the Supreme Court, establishes compensation of two and a half million euros and overturns a previous determination by the National High Court that had refused to acknowledge the harm, according to reporting by Digi24.ro.
The case dates back to 1991, when the Moroccan-origin worker arrived in Spanish territory seeking a fresh start. That same year, judicial authorities imposed a sentence of 24 years' imprisonment on him for a series of sexual assaults and a theft committed in the Catalonia region. For years, the man maintained his innocence until, last December, he obtained final acquittal in the final proceeding pending against him. During that hearing, even one of the persons who had identified him as the perpetrator retracted his initial account.
The error that led to the deprivation of liberty stemmed, according to the high court, from the fact that the panel that handed down the initial conviction overlooked biological forensic evidence that excluded Tommouhi as the perpetrator of the rapes. The judges characterised the original ruling as an evident and indisputable judicial error that occurred in the Barcelona court.
After learning of the decision, the wronged man told the media that the administration of justice had ruined his life. He expressed that no monetary amount could restore his physical wellbeing or the lost years of youth, and stated: "They stole 36 years of my life."
The Supreme Court's ruling represents a setback for the position of the National High Court, which had defended the absence of procedural flaws in the initial proceedings despite the accused already having been declared innocent.
Source: Digi24