Spain must pay €2.5m to man who spent 15 years in jail for rapes he did not commit

MADRID, June 20 - A Moroccan man who spent 15 years in prison for rapes he did not commit and who said the Spanish justice system had ruined his life is to be awarded 2.5 million euros ($2.87 million) in compensation, Spain's Supreme Court ruled.

Ahmed Tommouhi, 75, a bricklayer from Morocco who moved to Spain to start a new life in 1991, was jailed for 24 years for two rapes and one count of robbery in Catalonia, northeastern Spain, in the same year.

In December, he was cleared of the last of the charges against him after a long-running campaign to prove his innocence during which one of the victims came forward to say he was not the attacker.

"The justice system has ruined my life," Tommouhi told reporters on Friday. The money wouldn't give him back his health or youth, he said, adding "they've stolen 36 years of my life."

Spain's Supreme Court on Thursday reversed an earlier order by the National Court which had refused to pay Tommouhi compensation, even though he was cleared of the offences, and claimed there had been no mistakes in his original trial.

The Supreme Court said Tommouhi was the victim of an "unequivocal and qualified" judicial error at the original trial in Barcelona.

The court did not consider an expert biological test which showed the perpetrator of the rapes was not Tommouhi, the Supreme Court said. REUTERS