Spain Ordered to Pay €3 Million to Belgian-Moroccan in Torture Case

According to the opinion of the UN Human Rights Committee, which Europa Press had access to, the facts date back to 2006, the year in which the National Court ordered the opening of an investigation on Aarrass, suspected of having participated in the May 1, 2003 attacks in Casablanca, and of being a member of the jihadist movement Harakat Al Moudjahidine Fi Al Maghrib. The investigation was ultimately closed in 2009.

The same year, the Moroccan justice system issued an international arrest warrant against him for terrorist crimes and his alleged links with Al-Qaeda cells in the Maghreb. Arrested in Melilla on April 1, 2008, and made available to the National Court, Ali Aarrass will ultimately be extradited to Morocco in 2010, although he had expressed to the Spanish courts and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) his fears of being tortured in the kingdom.

In his complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee, the Belgian-Moroccan claims to have suffered torture and "serious abuse" in Morocco, specifying that he was raped, drugged and subjected to electric shocks and sleep deprivation. Inhuman and degrading treatments that caused him enormous damage, including hearing problems, loss of sensitivity, and post-traumatic stress.

The UN sided with him in 2014, confirming that the risk that he would be tortured in Morocco was "real" and that Spain had violated Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Consequently, the Committee asked Spain to repair the damage suffered by Aarrass after his extradition to Morocco. Based on this opinion, the Moroccan has claimed more than 3 million euros from Spain for malfunctioning of the administration of justice. But it rejected his request, which led him to seize the Constitutional Court, which has just granted him protection.