Custody battle splits Spain over domestic abuse

A BITTER court battle has ignited uproar in Spain, shedding light on the scourge of domestic violence, after a convicted wife beater won custody of his two children and their mother was slated for child abduction.

More like a soap opera than a court case, the saga has split opinion in Spain, a predominantly Catholic country that struggles with 21st-century gender reform.

The story began when an Andalusian woman was ordered to hand custody of her children to her violent ex-husband, who had previously been jailed for abusing her.

Juana Rivas, 36, took her two young children back to Spain from the family home in Italy last year, without the consent of her Italian ex-husband, Francesco Arcuri.

Upon her return, she filed a domestic abuse claim.

However, a Spanish court ordered her to hand over the children, aged three and 11, to their father at the end of July.

The court in Granada said the firstborn was evaluated by psychologists and would not be affected by seeing his father.

Rivas was due back in court last month, but in a dramatic turn of events, she went into hiding for nearly a month – with her two children in tow.

Women’s rights groups across Spain condemned the court’s decision and a social media storm ensued, with sympathisers rallying around her cause.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy voiced support for the missing Rivas, as did several high-profile women politicians. But they faced steep opposition in high places.

The court’s decision was defended by Jueces para la Democracia, a professional lawyers’ association, which said it had carried out a diligent and proportionate action.

Rivas subsequently came out of hiding and reappeared in court, and the children returned to Italy with their father.

She is now being investigated by the Spanish judiciary for the alleged crimes of child abduction and disobeying a court order.

The children live with their father on the small Sicilian island of San Pietro and have limited contact with their mother via phone and video, pending resolution of the saga.

The court in Granada has told Rivas the Italian authorities must now make any decision concerning custody of the children.

The controversy has reopened old wounds in a traditionally Catholic country that – despite passing a landmark law against gender violence in 2004 – still struggles with reform.

Last year, 28 281 women in Spain were registered as victims of gender violence, up 2.4% on the previous year, according to the state statistics institute.

Critics say the Rivas case shows how Spanish courts and judges – apart from those that specialise in domestic violence – do not take abuse claims seriously.

The case had revealed serious shortcomings in the gender-related training of legal professionals in regular courts, researcher Alba Alonso Álvarez told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.