BOOK I
General provisions on felonies and misdemeanours, the persons responsible, the penalties, security measures and other consequences of criminal offences

TITLE XX
On felonies against the Judicial Power

CHAPTER III
On covering up

Article 451

Whoever has knowledge of a felony committed and, without having intervened in it as a principal, subsequently intervenes in its execution, in any of the following manners, shall be punished with a sentence of imprisonment of six months to three yearsm :

1. Aiding the principals or accomplices to benefit from the gains, product or price of the offence, without intending personal profit ;

2. Hiding, altering or destroying the evidence, effects or instruments of an offence, to prevent it being discovered ;

3. Aiding the suspected criminals to avoid investigation by the authority or its agents, or to escape search or capture, whenever any of the following circumstances concur :
a) That the act covered up amounts to treason, regicide, the homicide of any of the King’s ascendants or descendents, of the Queen Consort or the Consort of the Queen, the Regent or any other member of the Regency, of the Heir to the Throne, genocide, crimes against humanity, crimes against protected persons and assets in the event of armed conflict, rebellion, terrorism, homicide, piracy, trafficking in human beings or trafficking in human organs ;
b) When the person abetting has acted in abuse of his public functions. In this case, in addition to the punishment of custodial sentence, that of special barring from public employment and office for a term of two to four years shall be imposed if the felony concealed is less serious, and of absolute barring for a term from six to twelve years if it is serious.

BOOK I
General provisions on felonies and misdemeanours, the persons responsible, the penalties, security measures and other consequences of criminal offences

TITLE XX
On felonies against the Judicial Power

CHAPTER VI
On perjury

Article 458

1. A witness who does not tell the truth in his deposition in a court case shall be punished with imprisonment of six months to two years and a fine of three to six months.

2. If perjury is committed against the accused in a criminal case, the penalties shall be of imprisonment from one to three years and a fine from six to twelve months. If a conviction is handed down due to that deposition, the higher degree penalties shall be imposed.

3. The same penalties shall be imposed if the perjury takes place before International Courts of Law that, by virtue of treaties duly ratified under the Spanish Constitution, exercise powers deriving therefrom, or when committed in Spain on declaring by virtue of letters rogatory issued by a foreign court.

Article 459

The penalties set forth in the preceding Articles shall be imposed in the upper half on experts or interpreters who maliciously misconstrue the truth in their opinion or translation, who shall also be punished with the penalty of special barring from profession or trade, public employment and office, for a term from six to twelve years.

Article 460

Should the witness, expert or interpreter, without substantially misconstruing the truth, alter it with hesitation, inexactness or by silencing relevant facts or data known to him, he shall be punished with the penalty of a fine from six to twelve months and, when appropriate, suspension from public employment and office, profession or trade, of six months to three years.

Article 461

1. Whoever were to knowingly produce false witnesses or misleading experts or interpreters, shall be punished with the same penalties as those established for them in the preceding Articles.

2. Should the offender of such a felony be a solicitor, barrister, chartered labour consultant or representative of the Public Prosecutor, in their professional practice or duties of office, in each case the punishment in its upper half and that of special barring from public employment and office, profession or trade, for a term of two to four years, shall be imposed.

Article 462

Whoever, having committed perjury in a criminal case, retracts in a timely, due manner, declaring the truth in order for it to take effect before judgement is handed down in the proceedings concerned, shall be exempt of punishment. If a custodial sentence has been enforced as a consequence of the perjury, the lower degree penalties shall be imposed.

BOOK I
General provisions on felonies and misdemeanours, the persons responsible, the penalties, security measures and other consequences of criminal offences

TITLE XX
On felonies against the Judicial Power

CHAPTER IX
On felonies against the Judicial Administration of the International Criminal Court

Article 471 bis

1. A witness who intentionally commits perjury in his deposition before the International Criminal Court, being bound to tell the truth pursuant to the rules and regulations of procedure and evidence of that Court, shall be punished with imprisonment from six months to two years. Should the perjury be committed against the accused, the punishment shall be imprisonment from two to four years. Should a conviction be handed down as a consequence of the witness statement, the punishment of imprisonment from four to five years shall be imposed.

2. Whoever presents evidence before the International Criminal Court knowing that it is false or has been forged shall be punished with the penalties stated in the preceding Section of this Article.

3. Whoever intentionally destroys or alters evidence, or interferes with the procedures for giving evidence before the International Criminal Court, shall be punished with a sentence of imprisonment of six months to two years and a fine for seven to twelve months.

4. Whoever bribes a witness, obstructs his appearance or deposition before the International Criminal or interferes with them, shall be punished with a sentence of imprisonment of one to four years and a fine from six to twenty- four months.

5. Whoever obstructs an officer of the Court, bribes or intimidates him, to oblige or induce him not to carry out his duties or to do so unduly, shall be punished with imprisonment from one to four years and a fine from six to twenty- four months .

6. Whoever retaliates against an officer of the International Criminal Court due to the duties he or another officer has carried out shall be punished with a sentence of imprisonment of one to four years and a fine from six to twenty- four months.

The same punishment shall be incurred by whoever retaliates against a witness for his deposition before the Court.

7. Whoever solicits or accepts a bribe as an officer of the Court of Law and in relation to his official duties shall incur a sentence of imprisonment from two to five years and a fine of one to three times the value of the handout solicited or accepted.

BOOK I
General provisions on felonies and misdemeanours, the persons responsible, the penalties, security measures and other consequences of criminal offences

TITLE XXIV
Crimes against the International Community

CHAPTER II
Crimes of genocide

Article 607

1. Those who, aiming to fully or partially exterminate a national, ethnic, racial, religious or specific group determined by the disability of its members, commit any of the following acts, shall be punished :

1. With a sentence of imprisonment from fifteen to twenty years, if they were to kill any of its members. If two or more aggravating circumstances were to concur in the act, the higher degree punishment shall be imposed ;
2. With imprisonment from fifteen to twenty years, if they were to sexually assault any of its members or cause any of the injuries foreseen in Article 149 ;
3. With imprisonment from eight to fifteen years, if they were to subject the group or any of its members to conditions of existence that endanger their life or seriously affect their health, or when any of the injuries foreseen in Article 150 are caused ;
4. With the same punishment, if forcible transportation of the group or its members are carried out, if they adopt any measure aimed at preventing their lifestyle or procreation, or if they forcibly transfer individuals from one group to another ;
5. With imprisonment from four to eight years, if they were to cause any injury other than that stated in Sub-Sections 2 and 3 of this Section.

2. Diffusion by any means of ideas or doctrines that deny or justify the crimes defined in the preceding Section of this Article, or that aim to reinstate regimes or institutions that protect practices that generate these shall be punished with a sentence of imprisonment from one to two years.

BOOK I
General provisions on felonies and misdemeanours, the persons responsible, the penalties, security measures and other consequences of criminal offences

TITLE XXIV
Crimes against the International Community

CHAPTER II BIS
On crimes against humanity

Article 607 bis

1. Conviction for crimes against humanity shall befall whoever commits the acts foreseen in the following Section as part of a widespread or systematic attack on the civil population or against part thereof .

In all cases, committing such acts shall be deemed a crime against humanity when :

1. Due to the victim pertaining to a group or community persecuted for political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious or another kind of reasons, disability, or other motives universally recognised as unacceptable under International Law ;
2. In the context of an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination of a racial group over one or more racial groups and with the intention of maintaining such a regime.

2. Those convicted of crimes against humanity shall be punished :

1. With a sentence of imprisonment from fifteen to twenty years if they cause the death of any person. A punishment higher in one degree shall be imposed if any of the circumstances foreseen in Article 139 concur ;
2. With a sentence of imprisonment from twelve to fifteen years if they commit rape, and from four to six years imprisonment if the act were to consist of any other type of sexual assault ;
3. With a sentence of imprisonment from twelve to fifteen years if any of the injuries of Article 149 were to take place and from eight to twelve years imprisonment if persons are subjected to conditions of existence that endanger their life or seriously affect their health, or when they are caused any of the injuries foreseen in Article 150. A sentence of imprisonment from four to eight years shall be applied if they commit any of the injuries of Article 147 ;
4. With a sentence of imprisonment from eight to twelve years if they deport or forcibly transport one or more persons from one State or place to another, by expulsion or other acts of coercion without authorised reasons ;
5. With a sentence of imprisonment from six to eight years if they were to forcibly make pregnant any woman in order to modify the ethnic composition of the population, without prejudice to the relevant punishment, as appropriate, for other felonies ;
6. With a sentence of imprisonment from twelve to fifteen years when they detain any person and refuse to recognise that custodial sentence or to report on the situation or whereabouts of the person arrested ;
7. With a sentence of imprisonment from eight to twelve years if they were to arrest a person, depriving him of his liberty, with breach of the international rules on arrest.
The punishment shall be imposed at a lower degree when the arrest lasts less than fifteen days ;
8. With the punishment from four to eight years imprisonment if they commit serious torture of persons they have under their custody or control and of imprisonment from two to six years if less serious. For the purposes of this Article, torture shall be construed as submitting a person to physical or mental suffering. The punishment foreseen in this Sub-Section shall be imposed without prejudice to the relevant penalties, as appropriate, for the violations of other rights of the victim ;
9. With a sentence of imprisonment from four to eight years if they commit any of the conducts related to prostitution defined in Article 187.1, and with that of six to eight years in the cases foreseen in Article 188.1. The punishment shall be imposed from six to eight years on whoever transports persons from one place to another with the intent to sexually exploit them, using violence, intimidation or deceit, or abusing a situation of superiority or need or the vulnerability of the victim. When the conduct foreseen in the preceding Section and in Article 188.1 is committed against minors or the incapacitated, the higher degree penalties shall be imposed ;
10. With a sentence of imprisonment from four to eight years if any person is subjected to slavery or kept in servitude. The punishment shall be applied without prejudice to the appropriate ones for the specific violations committed against the rights of persons. Slavery shall be construed as the situation of a person over whom another exercises, albeit de facto, all and some of the attributes of the right of property, such as buying, selling, lending or exchanging such person.

BOOK I
General provisions on felonies and misdemeanours, the persons responsible, the penalties, security measures and other consequences of criminal offences

TITLE XXIV
Crimes against the International Community

CHAPTER III
On crimes against protected persons and assets in the event of armed conflict

Article 608

For the purposes of this Chapter, the following are intended as protected persons :

1. The wounded, the sick or shipwrecked, and the medical or religious personnel protected by the First and Second Geneva Conventions dated on 12th August 1949, or the First Additional Protocol dated on 8th June 1977 ;
2. Prisoners of war protected by the Third Geneva Convention dated on 12th August 1949 or the First Additional Protocol dated on 8th June 1977 ;
3. The civilian population and individual civilian protected by the Fourth Geneva Convention dated on 12th August 1949 and by the First Additional Protocol dated on 8th June 1977 ;
4. Non-combatants and the personnel of the Protecting Power and its Substitute protected by the Geneva Conventions dated on 12th August 1949 or by the First Additional Protocol dated on 8th June 1977.
5. Parliamentarians and the persons accompanying them, protected by the Second Convention of The Hague dated on 29th July 1899 ;
6. The United Nations and associated personnel, protected by the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel, dated on 9th December 1994 ;
7. Any others with that status by virtue of the Second Additional Protocol dated 8th June 1977, or any other international treaties to which Spain is a party.

Article 609

Whoever, during an armed conflict, physically abuses or seriously endangers the life, health or integrity of any protected person, subjects him to torture or inhumane treatment, including biological experiments, causes him serious suffering or subjects him to any medical act that is not in keeping with his state of health, nor according to the generally recognised medical standards that the Party responsible would apply to its own nationals not detained under similar medical circumstances, shall be punished with a sentence of imprisonment from four to eight years, without prejudice to the punishment that might be appropriate for the damaging results caused.

Article 610

Whoever, during an armed conflict, uses or orders methods or means of combat that are prohibited or intended to cause unnecessary suffering or superfluous harm, as well as those conceived to cause, or that can be reasonably be expected to cause extensive, lasting and serious damage to the natural environment, compromising the health or survival of the population, or who orders all-out war, shall be punished with a sentence of imprisonment from ten to fifteen years, without prejudice to the relevant punishment for the results caused.

Article 611

Whoever perpetrates the following acts during an armed conflict shall be punished with a sentence of imprisonment from ten to fifteen years, without prejudice to the relevant punishment for the results caused :

1. Conducts or orders indiscriminate or excessive attacks or makes the civil population the target of attacks, retaliation or acts or threats of violence, the main purpose of which is to strike fear therein ;
2. Destroys or damages, breaching the rules of International Law applicable to armed conflicts, the non-military ships or aircraft of an adversary or neutral party, unnecessarily and without allowing time or without adopting the necessary measures to provide for the safety of persons and conservation of the ship’s papers ;
3. Forces a prisoner of war or a civilian to serve, in any way, in the Armed Forces of the adversary, or deprives him of his right to a due and impartial process of law ;
4. Deports, forcibly transports, takes hostage or unlawfully detains or confines any protected person or uses him to protect certain military locations, zones or forces from an attack by the adversary ;
5. Transports and settles population from the side occupying, directly or indirectly, in the occupied territory, to reside there permanently ;
6. Perpetrates, orders the carrying out or maintains, with regard to any protected person, practices of racial segregation and other inhumane and degrading practices based on other distinctions of an unfavourable nature, that amount to an outrage against personal dignity ;
7. Prevents or delays, without reason, the release or repatriation of prisoners of war or civilians ;
8. Declares the rights and actions by the nationals of the adversary to be abolished, suspended or inadmissible before a Judge or Court of Law ;
9. Attacks the sexual freedom of a protected person by committing acts of rape, sexual slavery, induced or forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced sterilisation or any other kind of sexual assault.

Article 612

Whoever perpetrates the following acts during an armed conflict shall be punished with a sentence of imprisonment of three to seven years, without prejudice to the relevant punishment for the results caused :

1. Knowingly violates the protection due to hospitals, installations, materiel, units and means for health transport, prisoner camps, sanitary and safety zones and locations, neutralised zones, locations for internment of the civil population, undefended locations and demilitarised zones, made known by the appropriate and distinctive signs ;
2. Acts with violence against the medical or religious staff or those forming medical missions or aid organisations, or against the personnel authorised to use then signs and distinctive signals, established by the Geneva Conventions, pursuant to International Law ;
3. Severely abuses, deprives or does not ensure the essential food or necessary medical assistance to any protected person, or subjects him to humiliating or degrading treatment, fails to inform him of his situation without justified delay, and in a comprehensible manner, imposes collective punishment for individual acts, or infringes the requisites for accommodation of women and families, or for special of women and children established in the international treaties to which Spain is a party, and in particular, who recruits or enrols persons under the age of eighteen or uses them to participate directly in the hostilities ;
4. Unduly uses the protective or distinctive signs, emblems or signals established and recognised in the international treaties to which Spain is a party, especially the distinctive signs of the Red Cross, of the Red Crescent and the Red Crystal.
5. Unduly or perfidiously uses a flag, uniform, insignia or distinctive emblem of neutral States, of the United Nations or other States that are not parties to the conflict, or of the adversaries, during attacks or to cover, favour, protect or hinder military operations, except in the cases specifically foreseen in the international treaties to which Spain is a party ;
6. Unduly or perfidiously uses the flag of parley or surrender to attack the inviolability or unduly retain the negotiator or any of the persons accompanying him, personnel of the Protecting Power or its Substitute, or a member of an International Fact Finding Commission ;
7. Strips a corpse, the wounded, sick, shipwrecked, prisoner of war or interned civilian of his belongings ;
8. Intentionally starves the civilian population as a means of warfare, depriving it of the indispensable resources for survival, including the act of randomly obstructing aid supplies conducted pursuant to the Geneva Conventions and its Additional Protocols ;
9. Violates a ceasefire, armistice, capitulation or another arrangement made with the adversary ;
10. Intentionally attacks any member of the United Nations and associated personnel, or that participating in a peace or humanitarian aid mission pursuant to the United Nations Charter, as long as they are entitled to the protection granted to civilians or civil objects, pursuant to International Law on armed conflicts, or threaten them with such an attack to oblige a natural or legal person to carry out or abstain from carrying out any act.

Article 613

1. Whoever perpetrates or orders any of the following actions during an armed conflict shall be punished with a sentence of imprisonment from four to six years :

a) Attacks or targets cultural property or places of worship that are the cultural or spiritual heritage of persons as an object of reprisals or acts of hostility, as long as those assets or locations are not in the immediate vicinity of a military objective and are not used to support the military effort by the adversary and are duly marked ;
b) Makes undue use of the cultural property or places of worship referred to in Sub-Section a) to support military action ;
c) Appropriates on a large scale, robs, sacks or perpetrates acts of vandalism against the cultural property or places of worship referred to in Sub-Section a) ;
d) Attacks or makes assets of a civil nature of the adversary a target for reprisals or acts of hostility, when this does not provide, under the circumstances of the case, a defined military advantage, or when those assets do not contribute effectively to the military action of the adversary ;
e) Attacks, destroys, removes or puts assets that are indispensable for survival of the civilian population out of service, except if the adversary uses those assets to directly support military action, or exclusively as a means of subsistence for members of its armed forces ;
f) Attacks or makes works or facilities that contain hazardous substances or energy the target of reprisals when such attacks might cause those substances to be released and thus cause major damage to the civilian population, except if those works or installations are used to support in a regular, significant and direct way military operations and those attacks are the only feasible way to end that support ;
g) Destroys, damages or seizes, without military need, items that do not belong to him, obliging another to hand them over or perpetrating any other acts of pillage ;
h) Unduly or unnecessarily confiscates moveable personal or real property in the occupied territory or destroys non- military ships or aircraft and their cargo, of an adversary or neutral party, or captures them in breach of the applicable international provisions on armed conflicts at sea ;
i) Attacks or carries out acts of hostility against installations, material, units, private residences or vehicles of any member of the personnel stated in Section 10 of Article 612, or threatens to carry out such attacks or acts of hostility to oblige a natural or legal person to carry out or to abstain from carrying out any act.

2. When the reprisal, act of hostility or undue use targets cultural property or places of worship under special protection, or those granted protection by virtue of special agreements, or buildings that are cultural property or places of worship under reinforced protection, or their immediate surroundings, the higher degree punishment may be handed down.

In the other cases foreseen in the preceding Section of this Article, the higher degree punishment may be imposed when extensive, major destruction is caused to assets, works or facilities covered by these, or in cases of extreme severity.

Article 614

Whoever, during an armed conflict, perpetrates or orders any other violations or acts contrary to the provisions of the international treaties to which Spain is a party and related to how hostilities are conducted, regulation of the means and methods of combat, protection of the wounded, the sick and shipwrecked, due treatment of prisoners of war, protection of civilians and protection of cultural property in the case of armed conflict, shall be punished with a sentence of imprisonment of six months to two years.

Article 614 bis

When any of the conducts set forth in this Chapter form part of a plan or policy or are committed on a major scale, the upper half of the respective penalties shall be applied.