The judge on duty in Granada, following a request in that regard from the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office, has decided around eleven o’clock this Tuesday night that Daniel Arcuri Rivas, the 10-year-old son of Juana Rivas and Francesco Arcuri, remains in Spain. with his mother and does not have to return to Cagliari (Italy) with his father once the Christmas holidays are over, at least temporarily. The decision comes just ten hours before the boy had to take the flight back to Italy. The judge has recused herself in favor of the Court of Violence against Women number two of Granada, which must now decide whether it is appropriate to take on the procedure given that it already contained a complaint of mistreatment filed by the mother. That complaint is currently filed but the decision to file is not final since it is being appealed in reform before the Violence Court itself. Daniel has been in Spain, with his mother and older brother, since last December 22. With the end of the holidays and the return to school, the boy had to return to Italy with his father but Rivas last Thursday asked her son to remain with her.
The Italian court denied that possibility and set a deadline of Wednesday, the 8th, for Daniel to be with his father. A Granada family court recused itself from the case on Tuesday morning, one day before the deadline. Rivas’s legal team went to the Prosecutor’s Office and the duty court in Granada on Tuesday afternoon. Finally, the prosecution sent a letter to the court requesting that the minor be heard and, where appropriate, the custody of the father be suspended and provisionally granted to the mother, “without prejudice to what is definitively resolved by the competent Italian authorities.”
The judge, after eight in the afternoon, accepted the opinion of the prosecution and decided to interview the minor at the last minute. After listening to Daniel and assessing his emotional state, he was investigated in that country for mistreatment.
Last Thursday, January 2, Juana Rivas asked the Italian court that Daniel remain in her custody and not return to his father because she considered that this put Daniel in a “serious risk” situation based on what they had told his mother. the two children, Daniel and Gabriel, who came of age last April. In addition, the Italian Prosecutor’s Office concluded an investigation in November 2024 that concluded that there were indications of mistreatment by Arcuri of his two children.
In just 24 hours, the next day, the Italian court, made up of a president and two more judges, rejected Rivas’s request considering that there were “no new elements that justify modifying the provisions issued in the interest of the minor by order deposited on December 12. December 2024 [pocos días después de una declaración judicial del menor] and partially modified on December 18, 2024.” This decision has been appealed although the appeal has not yet been resolved.
The 24 hours prior to Daniel’s departure to Italy, which should have occurred this Wednesday, have been one of frenetic activity in the courts. First of all, Rivas’s lawyers waited for a decision from the First Instance Family Court 10 of Granada. Its owner, Judge Juana Carreño, as reported by Aránguez in a statement, issued an order in which “she is not considered competent to dictate protection measures for the minor Daniel Arcuri Rivas and that the Court of Violence against Women number 2 is inhibited.” of Granada”, in which there was a complaint by Rivas for mistreatment of his children. Rivas’ lawyers have gone to this court again, despite the fact that a few days ago it had dismissed the complaint, to make a last and unsuccessful attempt. Now, by order of the judge on duty, this court must make a decision on the future custody of the minor.
Given these two refusals and what the lawyers have described as “extreme urgency of the situation”, the lawyers addressed the Chief Prosecutor of the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Granada, “to report this situation, begging her to take action as soon as possible. protection measures for the minor, who is in a clear situation of risk, asking for international protection due to threats against his life, insisting especially on the need for him to be heard.” Late in the afternoon, around eight o’clock, the Prosecutor’s Office wrote a letter recommending that the judge on duty take the child’s statement and, minutes later, the judge’s decision to listen to the child in her court that same night. “A fundamental advance in the case because it is the first time that the minor is going to be heard by a judge in Spain,” according to Carlos Aránguez. Eight or ten hours before taking the plane, the Rivas family finally learned the news that the three of them could stay together.
Sira Rego, Minister of Youth and Children, published on the X network that she is in contact with Juana Rivas’ lawyers. Sources from this ministry have explained to EL PAÍS that this contact began months ago and that, from then on, they have worked on different support options, including a possible appearance in the case, something that they have discarded as it did not have legal feasibility. . A few months ago, they say, they went to the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office to express their concern for Daniel’s integrity and, following the mother’s wishes, in an attempt to have the minor’s opinion heard in the Spanish judicial bodies, something that has finally happened, precisely with the support of the Prosecutor’s Office. Also the former Minister of Equality and now MEP for Podemos, Irene Montero, or the former Government delegate against Gender Violence, Victoria Rosell, among other people, have published in X requesting the permanence of the minor in Spain.
I have heard Daniel, son of Juana Rivas, say that he often thinks he is going to die. We are concerned for your safety. His testimony is heartbreaking.
I believe him.
— Sira Rego 🔻 (@sirarego)
Little Daniel arrived in Spain on December 22 to spend the holidays with his mother and brother. Shortly after landing, Rivas and the children discovered – through a message from their father – that Arcuri himself had also traveled to Spain. The next day, and due to the tone of the messages among other reasons, Rivas and his eldest son denounced the father for two alleged crimes: one of abuse and another of witness coercion and threat.
In fact, the family reported up to 40 WhatsApp messages from Arcuri to Rivas and the Ministry of the Interior activated the maximum alert system in cases of gender violence, describing the situation as “high risk” for the mother and the minor. Furthermore, according to what Daniel told his mother and brother, the father threatened him so that in the minor’s appearance before the judge on December 6 in the case of Arcuri’s alleged mistreatment, he would testify in his favor and say that the situation father and son family was normal. At the beginning of December, in addition, in which she denounced “continuous physical and verbal attacks by my father during the five years that I have lived with him. Despite the multitude of threats (also of death) from my father in order for me not to speak about what ‘I shouldn’t’ when in court or in consultations they asked me about the situation we were experiencing.”
