Francesco Arcuri recovers his son and sets off for Italy after Juana Rivas handed him over.

And the third time was the charm: Francesco Arcuri recovered his 11-year-old son Daniel after seven months of being held captive by his mother, Juana Rivas .

In a La Caleta Court Complex surrounded by cameras and police, after the mother, Juana Rivas, arrived with the minor at 9:00 a.m., carrying a suitcase and the child's belongings, which she hadn't even brought in the previous attempt, Arcuri was finally able to take charge of him.

The Italian arrived at 9:30 a.m., following the same conditions imposed on the mother: a single companion, her lawyer - in her case, with a first and last name, avoiding Francisca Granados , Rivas's advisor, and the older brother, Gabriel -, by car and without "interruptions."

After this, Rivas left the place shortly afterward, leaving it to the psychologists to arrange a reunion between father and son after seven months without seeing each other. They needed to address the mother's alleged manipulations of the child, which she had confided in psychologists for years, even in court proceedings. The reunion took place normally, and father and son even played for the last half hour.

Finally, with no one from his mother's entourage around—his brother Gabriel didn't leave his side last Tuesday—Arcuri was able to connect with his son, with whom he left the complex at 12:15 in his lawyer Enrique Zambrano 's car. According to EL MUNDO, the plan is for father and son to travel to Madrid and fly from there to Cagliari , and from there to Carloforte.

The Italian already tried it last Tuesday, when a psychodrama took place at the Granada Family Meeting Point , with the child crying in front of dozens of cameras while the mother's advisors shouted at him: "Say it, speak!"

Also, although it wasn't disclosed at the time, the father went to Granada last March, and a judge was on the verge of enforcing the February 18 sentence. The judge eventually met with Arcuri, explaining that he couldn't release his son so urgently, and even apologizing: "You'll have your son, don't worry, but you have to wait."

Then, when execution was already inevitable in May, Zambrano received a warning from the court that finally ordered the extradition, stating that it was better to wait until the minor finished his school year. The extradition finally took place today.

The outcome comes after a seven-month legal battle that has earned Rivas a new charge of abducting her youngest son— the Granada Court has supported Arcuri's claim that the woman has again alleged a planned "kidnapping" of her son, this time exploiting procedural law—and after a particularly hectic final few days.

First, last Wednesday, the judge and the prosecutor expressed their disgust at the maneuvers of the mother, her advisor Francisca Granados , and the minor's own brother, Gabriel , now 19, to hinder the child's return to his father last Tuesday.

Daniel practically offered a 'canutazo' to the media at the door of the Family Meeting Point in Granada , with cries that the Spanish Justice has given no credence to - he himself had been declaring for years that his mother regularly manipulated him in Granada against his father - and Rivas and Granados entered the place arm in arm, deliberately leaving him behind.

Gabriel then worked indoors to ensure that Daniel was never left alone, preventing him from creating a relaxed atmosphere for the reunion with his father after seven months without even a telephone conversation between the two, and with the mother's constant prior attitude, according to the Italian sentences, aimed at "destroying the father/son bond."

The attempt thwarted, the judge and the prosecutor worked hard to establish a system to avoid the child's inconvenience and induction, activists at the door, and the expected media circus.

Rivas and his "legal team" spent hours trying to stop the execution of the Italian sentence by every possible means, and they went all out with a letter from Gabriel denouncing for the umpteenth time abuse "for years," dismissed by Italy , and even in civil proceedings and by the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office the four complaints that will be heard next September.

The young man, however, concealed the fact that the 2022 civil ruling places him as completely "triangulated" by his mother in the conflict, a debtor to her "victim" attitude, and ultimately abducted by Rivas .

Gabriel went so far as to conceal the truth in the letter, stating that the court had removed his custody from his father. In truth, forensic psychologists and the court determined that the best course of action for his care was to remain with his father, the "only parent" capable of caring for him. However, since he was 16, he could choose where to live, and he chose Granada—a decision Arcuri did not object to.

Gabriel even filed a complaint this Wednesday against his father and the psychologist at the Meeting Point, alleging that both tried to manipulate Daniel into returning to Italy. This complaint, which was accompanied by a three-hour recording of the meeting of dubious legality, has been dismissed by Judge Cristina Luis , who is seeking to have the minor returned to Italy without any open charges in an attempt to protect the child.

The final blow to Rivas was her indictment this Thursday for abducting her son. And more specifically, her lawyers, led by Carlos Aranguez , were charged. The Court went so far as to criticize the decision of the judge Susana Vera , who allowed the child to remain in Spain when she took her statement on January 7th, as "hasty"—in Italy there was overwhelming evidence of manipulation by Rivas—and Aranguez's maneuvers are now called into question, leaving his client not only unable to justify her actions—since February they both knew they had to hand over the child—but also facing the possibility of losing parental rights and having the pardon granted to her revoked on condition that she not reoffend. The Court believes she has reoffended.

The "great challenge" now lies with Arcuri, as the Prosecutor's Office mentioned in one of its statements. Reconnecting with the heart of her son, whom she left in Spain last December as "a different child than the one I found," she told EL MUNDO. But that, whether it happens or not, will take place in the strict privacy of her home, and not in front of hundreds of flashbulbs.