A judicial journey that has already lasted 15 years. Since Juana Rivas denounced her then partner, Francesco Arcuri, who would be convicted of gender violence, the case of the woman who withheld her children so as not to hand them over to their father and was later convicted and partially pardoned by the Government has gone through numerous ups and downs. that have just added another episode: the Italian Prosecutor’s Office has presented an indictment against Rivas’s ex-husband, whom she accuses of mistreating her children and the eldest of them, Gabriel Arcuri, has claimed for letter that his little brother returns to his mother because he is in “great danger.”
In this new twist, the Prosecutor’s Office describes that Arcuri subjected both children “habitually to physical violence, humiliation, insults and threats”, acts for which he could be sentenced to seven years in prison.
For its part, Arcuri’s defense in Spain assures that he has not been notified “absolutely nothing” and “firmly” denies the accusations. But what has happened since the beginning of the Juana Rivas case?
The beginning of the case: complaint and conviction of Francesco Arcuri
The origin of the story dates back to 2009. Then, a complaint by Juana Rivas to the man who was her partner and father of her only child ended in a conviction for “injuries in the family environment” that led to a three-year prison sentence for Arcuri. months and a restraining order for a year and a half. After some time apart, and in line with how sexist violence usually impacts, they became a couple again, had another child and moved from Spain to Italy to live.
From that house that they both shared in Carloforte (Sardinia), Juana Rivas decided to leave with her two children. She did so on her way back to her native Maracena, in Granada, where she asked for help from the Women’s Center, stating that she was fleeing because they were in “danger of death” due to the mistreatment of which she accused her ex-partner both towards her and towards her. the two minors.
When they did not return to Italy, Arcuri filed a complaint and the court forced the woman to return them to her father. The woman from Granada ignored the order and was missing for more than a month with her children, claiming that she was doing it to protect them. At that time, the case made headlines, gained media attention and garnered the support of a good part of the citizens who symbolically cried out “Juana is in my house” while another part of public opinion questioned her testimony from the beginning.
The conviction of Juana Rivas
Rivas ended up returning her children to their father and appealed to the Constitutional Court on two occasions, but her appeals were archived and in 2018 she was sentenced to five years in prison and six years of loss of parental authority by the Criminal Court 1 of Granada for child abduction. Magistrate Manuel Piñar did so with a controversial sentence in which he accused her of “exploiting the argument of abuse” and in which he did not take into account the injury report and the conviction against Arcuri in 2009 which, according to the Grenadine’s defense , gave support to the fear he suffered. Furthermore, the judge even asked him in court why he had returned to Arcuri despite having denounced him years before.
Later, in 2021, the Supreme Court reduced the sentence by half and Juana Rivas went to prison. At the same time, the woman’s defense asked the Government for a pardon, arguing that she committed the crime for a reason “understandable from a human point of view” such as “protecting her children.” In November of that year, the Council of Ministers granted him a partial pardon that reduced his prison sentence to one year and three months, and the six years of special disqualification from exercising parental authority were commuted to 180 days of work for the benefit of the community.
Freedom and the controversy of sentences
At the beginning of December 2021, the Court of Cagliari (Sardinia) established that minors could travel to Spain to spend a few days of Christmas with their mother, but Judge Piñar tried on several occasions to prevent this from happening, stating that Rivas “could represent a danger to their children.” The Prosecutor’s Office accused the judge of making “personal assessments” about the woman and took a position in favor of her freedom. For its part, Penitentiary Institutions granted the woman from Granada the third degree, so that she could remain at home with a telematic control bracelet.
Finally, and after his defense appealed against Piñar’s decision, in 2022 the Granada Court agreed with him and suspended the prison sentence against Rivas. Specifically, the resolution estimated that within three years the woman will not be able to commit any crime if she does not want to lose her freedom again and forced the woman from Granada to participate in positive parenting programs.
Judge Piñar, who has a history of controversial sentences that include assessments of the “attractiveness” of a victim, has been at the center of Rivas’s entire judicial journey to the point that he sued his lawyer after accusing him of being “manifestly biased” in their assessments. Complaint that ended up being filed. Furthermore, the defense of Granada has always doubted the judge due to his statements about sexist violence on his social networks. Not only that: the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) opened a disciplinary file against him for a possible “serious misconduct” precisely because of his messages. The case was filed, but he was later sanctioned for transferring information about one of Rivas’s children to a newspaper.
Custody and separation of children
While the judicial matter was taking place in Spain, Rivas and her children were also facing another procedure that has been carried out in Italian lands with which the woman has tried at all times to regain custody of her two children, alleging that they were in danger. and that their father mistreated them. In several visits, Rivas’ lawyers filed complaints of sexist violence that were filed and at the same time the Italian courts were deciding what to do with the custody of the minors.
Thus, in 2019 they had granted sole custody of both to Arcuri, but Rivas appealed the decision. In March 2023, the court in Cagliari (Italy) ruled in similar terms and denied him the possibility of regaining custody of his minor son, who has since continued in the custody of his father. However, the oldest had already decided to return to Granada with his mother in June 2022 when he turned 14 and was of the legal age necessary to decide. The young man is the one who this Wednesday requested protection from the Italian justice system, requesting that it take measures to prevent his brother Daniel from continuing with their father. “I speak to you from direct knowledge of what my brother is experiencing. […] When we were torn from our mother, he was three years old,” he says.
In Italy, the order of the Supreme Court to repeat the trial that denied Rivas custody of the minor after the appeal presented by his defense is still pending: thus, the court considers that the process lacked an in-depth analysis of the interest of the children having Keep in mind that the brothers live separately. The woman’s defense denounces that, despite the fact that this decision was made in April of this year, eight months ago, it has not been carried out.
The last chapter of the case came this Wednesday when it was learned that the Cagliari Prosecutor’s Office, after an investigation, has found evidence of mistreatment by the father towards his children. Reason why the Public Ministry has asked the court to adopt precautionary measures so that the youngest of the children, who is still ten years old, is with his mother, given the danger to his physical integrity.
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