Spain to Pay $495,000 to Moroccan Couple Wrongly Jailed for Terrorism

The facts date back to 2016, the year in which the man was arrested for a crime of jihadist indoctrination and placed in pre-trial detention. His wife was arrested a few months later for apology for terrorism and also placed in detention. The man remained in prison from May 5, 2016 to March 13, 2019 (1,044 days) and the woman, from January 24, 2017 to December 22, 2017 (333 days).

The couple was convicted in June 2018, but the Supreme Court overturned the sentence in February 2019, ordering a retrial before another court, which led to their acquittal by the National Court on October 21, 2019. After his release, the couple requested compensation from the Ministry of Justice for "abnormal functioning of the administration of justice", but the department rejected his request.

In a decision dated November 24, the administrative chamber of the National Court ruled in favor of the couple and ordered the State to pay an indemnity of 450,386 euros to the man and 45,000 euros to the woman for the "moral damage" suffered due to their detention. The judge explains that the arrest and incarceration of the couple affected their children, then aged 4 and 1, who found themselves "in a situation of total helplessness".

The National Court argues that prison "deprived the two children of their parents, who had to stay with their grandparents in Morocco." In addition, "the man suffered very serious, irreparable and irreversible psychiatric damage that affects his identity and life project, and has led to his disability," the judges add.