Spanish court clears Moroccan who served 15 years for rape

Spain's Supreme Court announced on Thursday it had overturned the conviction of a Moroccan builder who served 15 years in prison for a rape he did not commit.

A court statement said expert evidence that would have helped Ahmed Toummouhi's defence never went before the Barcelona court at the time of his trial.

Thursday's ruling cancelled a Barcelona court's 1992 conviction of Toummouhi, who had been sentenced to 24 years in jail for rape and assault.

The scientific report in question had concluded that sperm in the rape victim's undergarments was not a genetic match for Toummouhi, said Thursday's court statement.

Although the scientific work had been carried out in 1992, those responsible had not come to give evidence at the trial and the court had not suspended proceedings to ensure that they did, it added.

This new court ruling was in response to a petition filed by Toummouhi himself, who had been released from prison in 2006.

He was arrested along with another Moroccan following a series of rapes in the northeast Catalonia region in the 1990s.

The other man died in prison in 2000.

The actual rapist, a Spaniard who resembled Toummouhi, was only arrested a few years later.

The victim of the rape for which Toummouhi was convicted called last year for him to be cleared in an interview with El Pais newspaper. She was just 14 at the time of assault.

The court said it would publish its complete ruling in the coming days.