What is justice and who “wins” in cases such as these when a Valencia lawyer is sentenced to 14 years in prison for a custody case?In 1999 Maria Jose Carrascosa married an American and lived in the USA.They had a child the following year.In 2004 the couple parted because Maria was classified as an abused woman.She returned to Spain with her daughter and in 2005 a Spanish court granted her custody and the child´s passport was taken away so that she could not leave the country.

Her husband reported Maria for kidnapping and a US court granted him custody.Maria returned to the States with a copy of the ruling issued in Spain but was told that it was worthless and she was reported to hand over the child.This she refused to do and in 2006 she was arrested and sent to jail on a 500,000 euro bail.She has remained in jail until November 2009 and in December was sentenced to 14years in prison.If her daughter is returned to the USA the sentence could be revised.

It appears that the chances of this couple coming to any agreement over custody are remote and the father states that he is unable to visit Spain for economic reasons.The fact tyhat the mother had been abused by this man seems to have made no difference to the American court.If a man abuses his wife is he a fit person to be a fatheris a question which doesn´t seem tohave been asked or answered.Maria´s family now want the Spanish authorities to become involved.