Today is a decisive day for the Juana Rivas case, a story with lights and shadows of which all Spain speaks. The Court of Granada has just ruled on whether it suspended the sentence of the Court of First Instance 3 of Granada, whereby the mother is obliged to give the children of both to her ex-husband, Francesco Arcuri, an Italian convicted of abuse in 2009. Justice does not agree. It is decreed that he should take the children with the father within three days.
The mother is missing next to her two children, aged 11 and 3, since last July 26, when she failed to comply with the court order for the first time to give her children to the father. Last Tuesday he had to go back to the judge, but again he did not appear for what was issued an arrest warrant for the mother, currently in search and capture.
Do you kidnap or protect your children?
On it weighs an arrest warrant for alleged kidnapping of minors brought by his ex-husband but Can you really talk about kidnapping or what you are doing is protecting your children from an abuser?
Juana has declared in the media that "if children return to Italy without my protection there will be no one to protect them, and if I return to Italy to defend them from their father, my integrity is in serious danger."
Opinions on the case are divided. On the one hand, networks have focused on supporting the mother through the # JuanaEstáEnMiCasa movement, demanding effective protection measures against sexist violence. It talks about the double victimization which usually occurs in these cases in which the woman is a victim of abuse and at the same time, the judicial system.
According to the head of the Maracena Women's Center (the town where Rivas lives), Paqui Granados, that of Juana is a clear case in which “justice and legality do not always go hand in hand”.
On the other side, are the defenders of joint custody and those who wonder if once the sentence is completed, the father has no right to joint custody or instead, you must lose forever parental authority over your children.
Chronicle of a story with lights and shadows
The case is plunged into a complicated legal process in the Juana has not left well stopped and has ended an arrest warrant.
In 2009, a judgment of the criminal court 2 of Granada condemned the father to three months in prison (which he did not have to serve) for a crime of "family injuries".
After the complaint of abuse and the separation of the couple, the father could visit his son (the second was not yet born) an alternate weekend and half of each holiday period.
Three years later, in 2012, the father returns to Italy with the child. Juana travels to recover it and they return to Spain.
The following year, she gave him a chance again and they resumed the relationship in Italy, where his second son is born. Despite receiving continuous abuse, as he has stated, he never dared to report there.
In July 2016 he took advantage of a vacation to return to Spain with his children, but did not return. The father filed a complaint for removing the two children from Italy without his permission and the mother one for mistreatment in Granada.
The first instance court 3 of Granada agreed in December that the children had been "stolen" illegally by the mother and that they should return with their father to Italy. Juana Rivas filed an appeal but justice did not agree with her, claiming that "Justice cannot be taken by own hand."
On July 26 the Provincial Court of Granada orders the mother of the minors to return them with their father, but did not show up for the court date.
On July 28, the father denounced Juana for three crimes: interparental abduction of minors, disobedience to judicial authority and habitual psychological violence against children.
Two days ago, the mother did not come to the court date again, so his arrest was decreed.
Simultaneously to the criminal process, the Audience of Granada pronounced today against Juana Rivas about the nullity of the sentence that forced her to hand over her children.
The mother's lawyers say they will present an appeal for amparo before the Constitutional Court.
The children, the most important
The mother says she only protects her children. The father denies the abuse; it reduces him to a discussion in which "they assaulted each other, giving the accused to his partner several shoves and dragging her on the ground" (according to the sentence) and ensures that he accepted the sentence of three months in jail to expedite the judicial process and power See your children first.
The truth is nobody, except Juana and Francesco, knows the whole truth about the story, only what comes to us from the media. What we all agree on is that the most important thing here is safeguard children.
