Yolanda Pleguezuelos is urging Catalonia’s prosecutors to identify her second attacker in a 1995 sexual assault in Esparraguera, Barcelona. The National Institute of Toxicology has completed a DNA profile, yet the investigation remains stalled and victims have received no official updates. The case is separate from the later compensation ruling for Ahmed Tommouhi, which did not establish the identity of the second assailant in the Esparraguera attack.
The wider case became one of Spain’s most prominent examples of wrongful conviction. Ahmed Tommouhi and Abderrazak Mounib were wrongly associated with sexual assaults in Catalonia in the early 1990s. Tommouhi was detained in Terrassa in 1991 because he resembled the actual perpetrator, Antonio García Carbonell, later convicted of similar assaults. Mounib died in prison. Tommouhi remained deprived of liberty from November 1991 until April 2009, nearly 18 years.
Biological evidence was basic to the later recognition of the injustice. An analysis by the Barcelona Basic Scientific Police Service excluded Tommouhi’s genetic profile from semen recovered from a victim’s clothing. The Supreme Court said the DNA evidence categorically excluded his profile, but found it had not been adequately considered at the time of conviction.
On June 18, 2026, Spain’s Supreme Court, sitting as the Sala Tercera, Sección Quinta, issued judgment STS 2668/2026 in cassation appeal 4112/2025 and awarded Tommouhi €2.5 million. The ruling, with Carlos Lesmes Serrano as rapporteur, found a qualified judicial error. Tommouhi had sought €3.645 million from the Ministry of Justice, which rejected his claim before the Supreme Court’s decision.
The court also distinguished between overturning a conviction through criminal review and establishing the State’s financial liability. A successful review does not automatically create a right to compensation, the ruling said. Its reasoning may still provide a sufficient legal basis for damages if it demonstrates an unequivocal, qualified error. That distinction matters beyond Tommouhi’s case: it sets out how a claim for State liability may follow an exoneration.
In September 2025, Pleguezuelos learned that the Catalan Prosecutor’s Office was investigating her case. New leads emerged through a documentary series produced by Atresmedia, prompting the National Institute of Toxicology to finalize the DNA profile of the second attacker. Since December, prosecutors have had information pointing to a likely suspect, but victims have received no official updates.
On October 30, three victims, including Pleguezuelos, formally asked prosecutors to expand DNA testing using samples they had provided years earlier. After months without a response, Pleguezuelos submitted another petition to the State Prosecutor’s Office in June. She has said she wants to know the truth, not seek punishment or compensation. The expanded DNA profile has been entered into the national database, but no matches have been found for crimes committed after 2006, when the database was established.
Other victims, including Nuria, have shared Pleguezuelos’s frustration, asking why they are denied even the right to know the truth. The lack of communication from the Catalan and State Prosecutor’s Offices has left victims feeling abandoned. Pleguezuelos has given up her anonymity and appealed directly to Francisco Bañeres, Catalonia’s chief prosecutor, and other responsible institutions for clarity and closure. She has called the continuing wait humiliating and more difficult than the original crime. The process has taken an emotional toll over more than three decades.
Prosecutors say they are awaiting a legal medicine report, a process that has already taken nine months. The case has drawn attention to victim rights and institutional transparency in Spain’s justice system. It also echoes recent calls for accountability in other high-profile legal matters, including scrutiny surrounding Quirón Prevención and the partner of Madrid’s regional president, as detailed in this related report.
Spain’s statute of limitations for sexual crimes has been debated, with recent reforms extending or eliminating time limits for certain offenses. Those changes do not apply retroactively to cases from the 1990s. Victims of gender-based violence in Spain can access support through the 016 helpline, which operates 24 hours a day in multiple languages. In emergencies, individuals can contact 112 or law enforcement directly.
