Tech & Rights

Dutchman Unjustly Serving Time Is a Victim of Spanish Bureaucracy

Dutchman Romano van der Dussen has served an unjust 11-year imprisonment in Spain because of the rape of three women in Fuengirola in 2003. Spanish police have been aware since 2007 that the DNA found on the victims...

by Nederlands Juristen Comité voor de Mensenrechten
Photo: Luca Rossato - Flickr/CC content

Dutchman Romano van der Dussen has served an unjust 11-year imprisonment in Spain because of the rape of three women in Fuengirola in 2003. Spanish police have been aware since 2007 that the DNA found on the victims isn't his, but instead that of a British man who's in prison in London for committing rape and murder. However, it took another eight years before the British authorities carried out a new DNA test that proved Van der Dussen's innocence. All along, the reviewing of the ruling of the Spanish Supreme Court has been impossible. Romano Van der Dussen is still in prison in Mallorca.

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