Custody and releaseEnglish-speaking prison lawyer in Spain

Pre-trial detention is not a sentence

It requires solid indications of the offence plus one of the statutory grounds: risk of flight, of destroying evidence, or of reoffending. Each of those is fought with concrete material: ties in Spain, a fixed address, employment, financial guarantees, surrender of the passport.

The decision can be appealed, and a fresh application for release is possible whenever circumstances change. Foreign nationals are routinely presumed to be a flight risk, and that presumption has to be dismantled with evidence.

While the sentence is served

• Classification into a regime and progression to open or semi-open conditions.
• Prison leave and parole.
• Transfer to your home country to serve the sentence near your family.
• Appeals against disciplinary sanctions.

We keep the family informed

In English, with prison visits and paperwork handled locally. See also criminal defence in Alicante.

Pre-trial detention is not a sentence

It requires solid evidence of the offence plus one of the statutory grounds: risk of flight, of destroying evidence, or of reoffending. Each is fought with concrete facts, not arguments.

Foreign nationals are routinely presumed to be a flight risk simply because they are foreign. That presumption is dismantled with evidence: a registered address in Spain, family here, an employment contract, financial guarantees, surrender of the passport, an undertaking to report to the court regularly.

The decision can be appealed, and a fresh application for release can be made whenever the circumstances change, including simply the passage of time and the weakening of the original grounds.

Serving a sentence: the things that are actually decided

• Classification. Whether you are placed in first, second or third grade determines your daily life. Third grade means a semi-open regime and, in practice, sleeping outside the prison.
• Prison leave and parole. Both are worked for, with reports and evidence of reintegration.
• Transfer to your home country. Serving the sentence near your family is possible under the EU framework decision and under bilateral treaties. It takes months of paperwork and it does not happen unless somebody drives it.
• Disciplinary sanctions. They affect leave and parole, and they can be appealed.

We keep the family in the loop

Prison visits, official paperwork and the sentencing court, all handled here, with reports in English to the family at home. See also extradition and European Arrest Warrant.