An investigating judge of Barcelona has summoned the singer Francisco González to testify as an investigated party after the Civil Guard managed to locate him to notify him that he had an open judicial procedure for the alleged non-payment of child support for his daughter Naomi Apolinar, already of legal age.
The summons is part of a case that had been provisionally filed away to prevent the crime attributed to him from prescribing. Once the appearance was formally communicated to the artist, the magistrate has reopened the procedure and will continue its processing in Barcelona.
The court ordered his/her localization in March
The holder of Instruction Court number 33 of the Court of First Instance of Barcelona had ordered last March that the Civil Guard locate the singer, after the judicial body itself tried unsuccessfully. The objective was to notify him of the existence of the case and to communicate his summons to interrogate him as an investigated person.
Until that moment, the interpreter from Alcoi had not appeared in the procedure with a lawyer nor a solicitor.
A judicial conflict that has been dragging on for more than two decades
The litigation between Francisco and Denia Apolinar, Naomi's mother, dates back to 2001, when it emerged that the former dancer had had a daughter with the singer. Years later, on May 19, 2006, when the girl was 5 years old, the Court of First Instance number 3 of Gavà recognized her as the biological daughter of the artist after he did not attend the paternity tests.
Since 2013, Francisco had the obligation to pay child support in favor of the minor. After Naomi reached legal age, the singer filed a lawsuit for modification of measures to request the suspension of that pension or, if applicable, a reduction.
The justice rejected that petition as the economic independence of the young woman was not accredited, who continued living with her mother and did not have sufficient resources to support herself.
What the Penal Code punishes
The non-payment of child support to children is typified as a crime in article 227 of the Penal Code. The infraction occurs when two consecutive months or four non-consecutive months are stopped being paid after a final judgment or an agreement.
That precept foresees prison sentences of three months to one year or a fine, although it does not necessarily imply entry into prison.
The singer's previous statements
"This girl is not my daughter. According to the law, she is, and I respect that, but the law also makes mistakes sometimes because people manage it. I don't have any daughter, but the law has said yes and has given her my surname" - Francisco González, singer
Now, with the case reopened and after having been located, Francisco must answer before the judge for the alleged non-compliance with an economic obligation judicially established, within a conflict that remains open more than twenty years after its beginning.