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The Minister of Youth and Childhood, Sira Rego, has stated that she has received a «heartbreaking» letter from Daniel, Juana Rivas’s youngest son, who is eleven years old, asking for help because he does not want to return to Italy with his father.
«I have received a letter from Daniel, a heartbreaking letter, in which he asks me for help, he asks me for help because he is afraid, because he feels terrified, he does not want to return to Italy,» Rego said in a publication on Friday.
After receiving this letter, the Ministry has prepared a communication to the Attorney General’s Office to «do everything possible to enforce Daniel’s rights.»
In the communication to the Attorney General’s Office, the minister recalls that «there is international legislation and legislation that guarantees the rights of children and ensures the best interests of the child, legislation that states that children have the right to be heard.»
«That is why, from the Ministry of Youth and Childhood, we will continue to work with determination to protect Daniel’s rights. Let’s listen to Daniel,» declared the Youth and Childhood minister.
A court in Granada has ordered the child to be handed over to his father, Italian Francesco Arcuri, who has custody, in compliance with a judicial ruling in Italy.
The Court of First Instance number 3 of Granada has summoned Juana Rivas to comply with the order to return her youngest son, who has been in Spain with his mother since the end of last year after denouncing alleged mistreatment by the parent.
In April 2021, the full Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court confirmed the conviction of the mother from Maracena (Granada) for the crime of child abduction, after spending a month in an unknown location with her two children in the summer of 2017, violating court orders to hand them over to the father, but reduced her sentence from five years to two years and six months in prison, considering that, although two minors were abducted, she committed a single offense and not two.