Section 225 bis of the Spanish Criminal Code punishes with two to four years prison the parent who, without a justified reason, abducts his or her underaged child. For the purposes of the precept, abduction is considered to be:

1. The removal of a child from his or her habitual place of residence without the consent of the other parent, or of the persons or institutions entrusted with his or her custody or guardianship.

2. The retention of a child in serious breach of a judicial or administrative decision.

Ruling 805/2024 of 26 September, of the Second Chamber of the Spanish Supreme Court confirms the dismissal of criminal proceedings against a father for the alleged crime of child abduction, on the grounds that the Spanish courts lack jurisdiction. It so happens that their territorial jurisdiction to hear the said offence is determined by the place where the offence was committed (forum delicti commissi), this being the place from which the father allegedly took the child, or the place where he should have returned him. In this context, this place corresponds to the domicile or residence of the child at the time of the alleged offences; and this domicile or residence was in Italy, where the mother lived and where the child was attending school.

None of the criteria for jurisdiction under Section 23.2 of the Spanish Organic Law of the Judiciary (Ley Orgánica del Poder Judicial) to extend Spanish jurisdiction to crimes committed abroad are met in this case, since the crime in question does not fall within any of the cases listed in numbers 3 and 4 of the aforementioned section, nor does the person under investigation have Spanish nationality, but rather Austrian nationality.

For all these reasons, the Supreme Court declared that the Spanish courts lacked jurisdiction on the facts reported by the mother.