The State will have to compensate the man who spent 15 years in prison for rapes he had not committed

BarcelonaThe Supreme Court has set compensation of 2.5 million euros for Ahmed Tommouhi, who spent 15 years in prison, wrongly convicted because he was mistaken for another man who had committed a dozen sexual assaults and whom he physically resembled. Now justice establishes that the State will have to compensate for this error with compensation.

With this decision, the Supreme corrects the National High Court's sentence, which last year dismissed the appeal in which the man requested compensation of 3.6 million euros and a declaration of guilt on the part of the magistrates who convicted him. After this judicial resolution, Tommouhi wondered in an interview with ARA: "They locked me up in prison for so many years, now they are overturning my conviction because they know I am innocent. They are overturning it! And they say they won't give me compensation. How will I live? Without a job, without any payment, nothing. They ruined my life".

The Supreme Court had already annulled in 2023 the sentence of the Barcelona Court that in 1992 had sentenced Tommouhi to 24 years in prison. DNA tests confirmed that the genetic traces found on the victim's clothing did not match his.

Tommouhi served more than three-quarters of his sentence and was released on parole in 2006. He spent 15 years in prison awaiting a pardon that never came, even though the Supreme Court had recommended it and the Superior Prosecutor's Office of Catalonia had requested it.