CROATIA CRIMINAL CODE

GENERAL PART

CHAPTER FIVE (v) - PUNISHMENT AND SENTENCING

Article 53

(1) Imprisonment may not be shorter than thirty days or longer than twenty years.

(2) For the most serious forms of criminal offenses, life imprisonment may be prescribed (hereinafter: life sentence).

(3) Long-term imprisonment shall never be prescribed as the sole principal punishment for a specific criminal offense.

(4) Long-term imprisonment shall not be imposed on a perpetrator who, at the time of the perpetration of the criminal offense, has not reached the age of twenty-one years.

(5) The imprisonment of juveniles shall be imposed under the conditions prescribed by a special statute on young perpetrators of criminal offenses. The imprisonment of juveniles is in its purpose, nature, duration and manner of execution a special penalty of deprivation of liberty.

(6) When imprisonment without a minimum duration and with a maximum duration of three years is prescribed for a criminal offense, together with such a penalty, a fine shall be prescribed as an alternative punishment.

(7) Imprisonment shall be assessed and imposed in full years and months, and in full days if its duration is up to three months.