A Family Member Has Been Arrested in Spain: What to Do in the First 72 Hours

When a relative — a partner, a child, a sibling — is arrested, the person left outside the police station usually feels the same thing: not knowing what they can actually do or who to turn to. This guide does not repeat the rights that belong to the detainee themselves during questioning, or the 72-hour detention limit in general, both already covered in our guides on what to do if you have been arrested and on detainee rights at the police station; if the relative is a foreign national, our guide for foreign nationals arrested in Spain covers that situation in more detail. It focuses instead on what you, from the outside, can do in the first hours.

What to Do and What Not to Do

In the first hours after learning of the arrest:

• Do: try to work out where and when the arrest happened, and which police force carried it out.
• Do: contact a criminal lawyer straight away if you want a private lawyer to take the case.
• Do: gather documents, witness contacts or anything that might help the defence later.
• Do: stay calm and wait for the detainee to be able to communicate, which is their own right.
• Don't: show up at the station demanding investigative details you are not entitled to.
• Don't: try to discuss the substance of the case directly with the investigating officers.
• Don't: post details of the arrest on social media while it is still ongoing.
• Don't: make decisions about the defence without a lawyer involved.

Finding the Police Station Holding Your Relative

If you don't know for certain where your relative is being held, start by reconstructing the arrest: who was present, roughly where it happened, and which force made the arrest — National Police, Guardia Civil, or a regional or local force, depending on the area. With that, call the station nearest to where the arrest took place and ask, giving the detainee's full name and ID number if you have it. If you get nowhere, or can't identify the right station, a criminal lawyer on duty can usually move faster: firms experienced in police-station assistance know the communication channels between stations and bar associations and can often confirm a detainee's location quicker than a family member calling around.

Private Lawyer or Duty Scheme: Acting Fast

In Spain, if a detainee does not name a lawyer of their own, the duty scheme — the turno de oficio — kicks in automatically: the local bar association assigns a duty lawyer, who has up to three hours to attend the station. A duty lawyer provides the same standard of assistance as a privately retained one, but if the family wants a specific firm handling the case from the outset, they need to move quickly.

The usual mechanics: the family calls a firm directly, and that firm contacts the police station or the duty bar association to let them know the detainee has a private lawyer available. The final decision on who represents them always belongs to the detainee (Art. 520 LECrim) — when police ask whether they want their own lawyer or a duty one, it is the detainee who has to name the lawyer. That's why, where possible, it helps for the family to also pass the firm's name to the detainee themselves — for instance, during the phone call they are entitled to make — so they can name that lawyer the moment they are asked. The sooner this happens, the less risk there is that the duty scheme is already underway by the time the private appointment reaches the station.

What the Police Will Tell You by Phone or in Person

Notifying a relative or person of the detainee's choosing is, first and foremost, a right that belongs to the detainee (Art. 520 LECrim) — it is not an open information line for someone calling in from outside. In practice, this means police will usually confirm, if asked, that someone by that name is in custody and at which station, but they are not obliged to share details of the facts under investigation, the contents of the police report, or the direction of the inquiry — and if the case has been declared secret, even that limited information may not be available. There is generally no visiting right for family members during police custody comparable to prison visits: contact between a detainee and their family is normally limited to the phone call the detainee is entitled to make.

Habeas Corpus Requested by a Family Member

If the family believes the detention is unlawful — for example, because the 72-hour maximum has been exceeded without release or a court appearance, because basic rights are not being respected, or because there is no legal basis for holding the person — Ley Orgánica 6/1984, of 24 May, governing the habeas corpus procedure, allows this urgent procedure to be triggered without the detainee themselves having to request it. Under Art. 3 of that law, those entitled to request it include: the detainee; their spouse or a person in an equivalent emotional relationship; their descendants, ascendants and siblings; their legal representative if they are a minor; their defence lawyer; the Public Prosecutor's Office (Ministerio Fiscal); and the Ombudsman (Defensor del Pueblo). The competent judge may also open the procedure on their own initiative.

Habeas corpus does not deal with guilt or the merits of the case: its only purpose is for a judge to examine, urgently, whether the deprivation of liberty is lawful and, if not, to order immediate release or that the person be brought before the court. If a family member believes any of these grounds apply, the most effective route is to raise it through a lawyer without delay — the lawyer can file the request directly with the duty investigating court.

After the First Hours

Once the detainee is released or brought before the court, different rules apply — already covered in detail in our guide on what happens step by step after an arrest, which also includes a short section on what family members can do at that stage. If ongoing legal assistance is needed from the very start of a detention, you can read more about our detainee legal assistance service.

The duty to release the detainee or hand them over to the nearest judge within twenty-four hours of the arrest is set out in Article 496 of the Spanish Criminal Procedure Law.