Criminal law
Published on September 17th, 2026
When the phone rings at home to say that a son or a brother has been arrested, the family usually knows little more than that, while the detainee, who is the one who will have to decide whether to make a statement and who will defend them, decides it in the hours when they understand least about what is happening to them. Anyone visiting, or living here without full command of the language, also lacks the words to place their own situation. As much of what comes afterwards is settled in that interval, it is worth knowing what happens in Barcelona over the first seventy-two hours and which decisions depend on the detainee or on their family.
The law is unusually plain in providing that detention may not last longer than strictly necessary to establish the facts and that, in any event, within a maximum of seventy-two hours the detainee must be released or brought before the judicial authority, with the police record stating the place and time of each step (article 17.2 of the Spanish Constitution and article 520.1 of the Criminal Procedure Act).
Plenty of arrests end well before that limit, when the person is taken to the duty court and the judge decides whether they are released, with or without measures such as reporting periodically, surrendering a passport or posting bail, or whether they are remanded in custody. With that decision the investigation opens and the detainee becomes an investigado, and what being an investigado means becomes the question that matters.
Inside the city of Barcelona the arrest is normally made by the Guàrdia Urbana, the municipal police, or by the Mossos d'Esquadra, Catalonia's own police force, depending on the type of offense. Although both forces have competence to arrest, in practice arrests end up routed to the Mossos, who conduct the criminal investigation and deal with the court. The Spanish National Police and the Guardia Civil keep competences of their own, particularly for certain offenses and outside the main urban areas. None of that alters the detainee's rights, which are the same throughout Spain, but it does decide which station they are held in and whom to contact, and that is why the first thing I ask on the phone is which station.
Article 520 of the Criminal Procedure Act, in the wording given by Organic Act 13/2015, requires the detainee to be informed in writing, immediately and in a language they understand, of the facts attributed to them, of the reasons for the arrest and of their rights, among which the following carry the most weight on the day:
A statement given in a language the detainee only half commands sits in the case file exactly like any other and is read later by people who were not in the room, which is why the interpreter matters well beyond courtesy.
Nor will the police steer the detainee toward any lawyer, given that no officer may recommend a particular one beyond informing them of their right to appoint one (article 520.5).
If the detainee appoints nobody, or if the lawyer chosen does not accept the case or cannot be reached, the Barcelona Bar Association, the ICAB, immediately assigns a duty lawyer (article 520.5). The duty roster runs around the clock, and the colleague who attends belongs to the same Bar as any lawyer the detainee might choose, with no difference in quality between them. The maximum of three hours from the request for the lawyer to arrive at the station also applies to both, duty lawyer or private. That assistance is free if the detainee is granted free legal aid.
In practice the difference is that neither the detainee nor the family chose that lawyer, who does not necessarily speak their language. The duty appointment is not final, however, and the detainee or their family can hand the defense to a lawyer of their own choice at any moment, including after a statement has been taken. For someone trying to help from outside, whether from home or from another country, that is the one concrete thing within reach that night, hiring a lawyer who then tells the station that they are taking over the defense.
The detainee must also be told how to challenge the lawfulness of the arrest (article 520.2). The route is habeas corpus, which serves to bring anyone unlawfully detained immediately before a judge (article 17.4 of the Spanish Constitution and article 1 of Organic Act 6/1984). Among other cases, the law treats as unlawful a detention that runs beyond the legal time limit and one in which the detainee's rights are not respected. It can be requested by the detainee, by their spouse or partner, by their descendants, ascendants and siblings, and by the Public Prosecutor or the Ombudsman (article 3 of the same Act), but not by the lawyer in their own name, which is why I draft the application and the detainee or a relative signs it. It is not a way to argue whether the accusation is well founded but a way to cut short a detention that does not comply with the law, and for that reason I only raise it when there is something specific to challenge.
What is said to the police goes into the police report and stays with the case even if it is later qualified or retracted, which makes the statement the part people underestimate most. Silence is a right and often the sensible choice, particularly while nobody has seen what the police are working from. Whether it is better to speak or to stay silent depends on what the police have and on what is attributed to the detainee, two things a lawyer establishes before the statement and not afterwards, when improvising in front of the officers can no longer be put right.
When a family calls me, I first establish which station the person is in, what is alleged and whether a statement has already been taken. From there I take over the assistance at the station and then at the duty court, if the matter gets that far. Before any statement I want to know what the police have and to talk privately with the detainee, in English if that is their language, about what it means, before a single line of the record is written. Urgent matters have a closed price per attendance, which I give on the phone before I set out and which is published on my fees page. If the detainee has prior convictions, the 2026 criminal-law reform on habitual reoffending explains why the date of the events decides which wording applies. The rest of what I do in criminal defense is on the criminal law page.
Editorial responsibility: Carles Jiménez, Spanish lawyer (Barcelona Bar No. 34.946). This note was prepared with the assistance of artificial-intelligence tools and reviewed and approved by the author before publication.
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