A Spanish woman has been sentenced to five years in prison after hiding with her sons to escape handing them over to their father, who was convicted of abusing her.

Juana Rivas has been stripped of custody rights for six years and ordered to cough up substantial legal costs.

The decision has been roundly criticised by Spanish politicians and women’s groups and sparked outrage among the general public.

Juana Rivas ran away from her Italian partner in May 2016 – leaving Sardinia to return to Spain where she filed a complaint of domestic abuse against him.

Francesco Arcuri, Ms Rivas’s partner, who was convicted of hitting her in 2009, denied the fresh allegations of abuse and a Spanish court ordered Ms Rivas to hand the children over to him.

She went into hiding for one month with the children – now aged 12 and four – before turning herself in to a court in Granada and handing over the children, who were reunited with their father.

The bitter court battle has received a great deal of attention in Spain – shedding light on the issue of domestic violence in a country where 99 women were killed by their partners last year.

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Ms Rivas told a court in the southern city of Granada she had only been acting “as a mother” who did not want her children to be forced to go back to a place where she had been abused.

According to the court ruling, she said she lived through hell in Sardinia – saying Mr Arcuri would “lock her up in a room for hours, hit her, spit in her face, pull her hair”.

She also said her children, particularly the eldest, had “suffered a lot and been witness to various things”.

But on Friday, the court ruled Ms Rivas was “exploiting the argument of abuse” to retain custody of her sons and ordered her to pay 30,000 euros in compensation on top of her former partner’s legal costs.

The judgment said she had carried out “child abduction”.

“A woman running away from terror to protect her children can’t be deemed abduction,” she said last year.

While the court recognised Mr Arcuri had been found guilty of hitting Rivas in 2009 when they lived in Spain, it pointed out that the couple had later decided to give it another go, with Ms Rivas moving to Italy, where they had a second child.

The court argued there was no evidence of abuse after the 2009 incident – saying a psychologist had examined the eldest child and found no trace of trauma related to domestic abuse.

A woman running away from terror to protect her children can’t be deemed abduction Juana Rivas

The court concluded: “The facts show that she decided to separate (from Mr Arcuri) in the summer of 2016 and ... she realised there would be a big stumbling block with custody of the two children. To get custody, she decided to exploit the argument of abuse.”

Ms Rivas’s lawyer branded the judgment a “failure of the judicial system” – indicating she would be appealing the verdict.

Spain’s deputy prime minister Carmen Calvo has said Ms Rivas will not be imprisoned until the sentence is confirmed.

She said: “The interests of the two children must be protected, even in these moments.”

Antonio Maíllo, head of a left-wing federation of parties in the southern Andalucia region, said the verdict was “barbaric” and set a troubling precedent.

“This country has changed but the judiciary is carrying on with outmoded parameters,” he said.

A spokesperson for Women's March Barcelona told The Independent: “This is a clear example of patriarchal justice: Women are not to be believed and when they do fight for their rights (and the safety of their children) they are to be punished.

"It is rulings like this that keep women in abusive relationships. We have seen in Spain the lack of justice in the mandana (Wolf-Pack) case where 5 men were acquitted of brutal rape of an 18-year-old girl and then released on bail.”

Donald Trump does not answer question from press about domestic violence

“This is heartbreaking #juanaestaenmicasa. Solidarity with all our sisters in Spain fighting to right this appalling court decision,” Women’s March London tweeted.

Ms Rivas’s actions sparked a social media frenzy in the country – with the #juanaestaenmicasa (Juana is in my house) hashtag gaining traction as she dodged the authorities.

The Rivas case has divided opinion in the predominantly Catholic country that battles with 21st-century gender reform, gender violence and the nation’s culture of machismo.

Former Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy – who was ousted last month after a corruption scandal – previously voiced support for the missing Ms Rivas. Several high profile female politicians did the same.

Critics argue the case shows how Spanish courts and judges – bar those that specialise in domestic violence – fail to take abuse claims seriously.

“She’s going to serve more time than others who have robbed or raped or killed when she only looked out for her children. Shame on this country,” one critic tweeted.