Spanish Supreme Court orders Spain to pay €2.5m to man wrongly jailed 15 years after DNA was ignored
The Spanish Supreme Court has ordered the state to pay €2.5 million to Ahmed Tommouhi, a Moroccan man who spent 15 years in prison for rapes he did not commit, after DNA that excluded him was ignored at trial.
The wrongful conviction
In 1991, Moroccan bricklayer Ahmed Tommouhi moved to Spain seeking a new life. Within months he was arrested in Catalonia with Abderrazak Mounib and charged with a string of rapes and robberies. A court convicted both men in 1992 largely on victim identifications, sentencing Tommouhi to 24 years in prison.
DNA evidence overlooked
A forensic report from Barcelona's Scientific Police showed that the DNA profile from semen on a victim's clothing did not match Tommouhi or Mounib. The jury ignored this exculpatory evidence during the original trial. The Supreme Court later described the omission as a "clear and qualified judicial error."
Decades-long exoneration
In 1997 several victims identified the real perpetrator, and a 2015 legal reform eased the path for reviews. Tommouhi's three outstanding convictions were overturned by the Supreme Court between 2023 and 2025; the last was vacated in December 2025. He served 15 years in prison and three more under supervised release. Mounib died of a heart attack behind bars in 2000.
The justice system has destroyed my life. They stole 36 years of my life.
Compensation ruling
This week the Supreme Court ordered Spain to pay €2.5 million, reversing a National Court decision that had denied any compensation. The judges stressed that the extraordinary length of his detention caused progressive moral suffering and a loss of life opportunities far beyond typical cases.
The prolongation of deprivation of liberty determines a progressive intensification of moral suffering, the loss of vital opportunities and an impact on the personality of the affected person that far exceeds the ordinary parameters of cases of unjust detention of short or medium duration.
Legal significance
The court clarified that a conviction being overturned does not automatically make the state liable, but the proven omission of essential evidence can establish a judicial error requiring compensation.
- Ahmed Tommouhi arrested in Catalonia and charged with rapes and robbery
- Convicted and sentenced to 24 years; DNA evidence ignored
- Victims identify the real perpetrator
- Released on parole after 14 years and 10 months in prison
- Final conviction overturned, fully exonerated
- Supreme Court orders €2.5 million compensation
