MADRID — Spain’s highest court has ordered the government to pay 2.5 million euros — roughly $2.87 million — to a man who spent 15 years behind bars for crimes he did not commit, according to a ruling by the country’s Supreme Court.
Ahmed Tommouhi, a 75-year-old bricklayer from Morocco, relocated to Spain in 1991 hoping to build a better life. That same year, he was convicted of two rapes and one count of robbery in the Catalonia region of northeastern Spain and sentenced to 24 years in prison.
After a lengthy fight to clear his name — during which one of the victims came forward and stated that Tommouhi was not her attacker — he was finally exonerated of the last remaining charge against him this past December.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Tommouhi expressed the lasting toll the ordeal has taken on him. “The justice system has ruined my life,” he said. He made clear that no amount of money could restore what he lost, adding, “they’ve stolen 36 years of my life.”
The Supreme Court stepped in after the National Court had previously refused to award Tommouhi any compensation, arguing that no errors had been made during his original trial. The Supreme Court disagreed, overturning that decision and declaring that Tommouhi had been the victim of an “unequivocal and qualified” judicial error during the original proceedings in Barcelona.
According to the Supreme Court, the original trial failed to take into account a biological expert analysis that demonstrated the person responsible for the rapes was not Tommouhi — a critical piece of evidence that was overlooked at the time.
