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

TITLE I
On felonies and misdemeanours

CHAPTER I
On felonies and misdemeanours

Article 15

1. Both a consummated offence and an attempted offence are punishable.

2. Misdemeanours shall only be punishable when consummated, except those attempted against persons or properties.

Article 16

1. An attempted offence takes place when a person begins to perpetrate an offence by direct action, perpetrating all or part of the acts that objectively should produce the intended result, and notwithstanding this, such is not attained due to causes beyond the control of the principal.

2. Whoever voluntarily avoids the offence being consummated, either by going no further with its commission when already commenced, or by preventing the result from taking place, shall be exempt from criminal accountability, without prejudice to the accountability he may have incurred for the acts perpetrated, should these already have constituted another felony or misdemeanour.

3. When various subjects intervene in an act, the one or those who desist from execution thereof once already commenced, and who prevent or attempt to prevent consummation, in a serious, firm manner, shall be exempt from criminal accountability, without prejudice to accountability they may have incurred for the acts perpetrated, should these already have constituted another felony or misdemeanour.

Article 17

1. A conspiracy exists when one or more persons collude to commit a crime and decide to carry it out.

2. A proposition exists when he who has resolved to commit a crime invites another or other persons to commit it.

3. Conspiracy and solicitation to perpetrate an offence shall only be punishable in the cases specifically foreseen in the Law.

Article 18

1. Provocation exists when a direct incitation is present by means of the printing press, radio broadcasting or any other means with a similar effectiveness, affording publicity, or when persons have gathered, inciting the perpetration of a crime.

Conniving at a criminal act by expressing approval thereof, for the purposes of this Code, is presentation, before an assembly of persons, or by any means of diffusion, of ideas or doctrines that defend the offence or praise the principal. Connivance at a criminal act by expressing approval thereof shall only be criminal as a form of provocation and if, due to its nature and circumstances, it constitutes a direct incitement to commit a crime.

2. Provocation shall be punished exclusively in cases in which the Law foresees this. If the provocation has been followed by perpetration of the offence, it shall be punished as induction.

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

TITLE II
On persons criminally responsible for felonies and misdemeanours

Article 27

Those criminally responsible for felonies and misdemeanours are the principals and their accessories.

Article 28

Principals are those who perpetrate the act themselves, alone, jointly, or by means of another used to aid and abet. The following shall also be deemed principals :

a) Whoever directly induces another or others to commit a crime ;
b) Whoever co-operates in the commission thereof by an act without which a crime could not have been committed.

Article 29

Accessories are those who, not being included in the preceding Article, co-operate in carrying out the offence with prior or simultaneous acts.

Article 30

1. In felonies and misdemeanours that are committed using media or supports of mechanical diffusion, neither the accessories, nor those who have personally or actually favoured these shall be held criminally accountable.

2. The principals to which Article 28 refers shall be held accountable in a progressive, excluding and subsidiary manner, in the following order :

1º. Those who materially drafted the text or produced the sign concerned, and those who induced others to perpetrate the act ;
2º. The directors of the publication or programme in which it is disseminated ;
3º. The directors of the printing, broadcasting or distribution company ;
4º. The directors of the recording, playing or printing company ;

3. When, for any reason other than extinction of criminal accountability, or for declaration of contempt of court or not residing in Spain, any of the persons included in any of the Sub-Sections of the preceding Section may be prosecuted, proceedings shall be taken against those mentioned in the Sub-Section immediately following.

Article 31

1. Whoever acts as de facto or de jure administrator of a legal person, or on behalf or in legal or voluntary representation of another, shall be held personally accountable, even though he does not fulfil the conditions, qualities or relationship that the relevant definition of felony or misdemeanour requires to be an active subject thereof, if such circumstances concur in the entity or person in whose name or on behalf of whom he so acts.

2. (Suppressed)

Article 31 bis

1. In the cases foreseen in this Code, legal persons shall be held criminally accountable for the felonies committed in their name or on their behalf, and to their benefit, by their legal representatives and de facto or de jure administrators.

In the same cases, legal persons shall also be criminally accountable for the felonies committed when perpetrating the corporate activities and on account and to the advantage thereof, who, these being committed by the natural persons mentioned in the preceding Section, were able to perpetrate the acts as due control was not exercised over them in view of the specific circumstances of the case.

2. The criminal accountability of legal persons shall be applicable whenever there is record of a felony being committed that must have been committed by the person who holds office or perpetrates the duties referred to in the preceding Section, even when the specific natural person responsible has not been individually identified, or it has not been possible to prosecute that person. When fines are handed down to both as a consequence of these acts, the Judges or Courts of Law shall modulate the respective amounts, so the resulting sum is not disproportionate in relation to the seriousness of such acts.

3. Concurrence, in the persons who have materially perpetrated the acts or those who have made these possible due to not having exercised due control, of circumstances that affect the culpability of the accused or aggravate his responsibility, or the fact that those persons have died or have escaped the action of justice, shall not exclude or modify the criminal accountability of legal persons, without prejudice to what is set forth in the following Section.

4. Circumstances that mitigate criminal accountability of legal persons may only de deemed to concur when, after the felony is committed, they have carried out the following activities through their legal representatives :

a) Having proceeded, prior to having knowledge of judicial proceedings being brought against them, to confess the felonies committed by them to the authorities ;
b) Having collaborated in investigation of the events, providing evidence, at any moment of the proceedings, that are new and decisive to clarify the criminal liabilities arising from the events ;
c) Having proceeded at any time during the proceedings, and prior to the trial itself, to repair or decrease the damage caused by the felony ;
d) Having established, prior to the trial itself, measures that are effective to prevent and discover felonies that might be committed in the future using the means or under the coverage of the legal person.

5. The provisions related to criminal accountability of legal persons shall not be applicable to the State, to the territorial and institutional Public Administrations, to the Regulatory Bodies, the Public Agencies and Corporate Entities, to political parties and Trade Unions, to organisations under Public International Law, or to others that exercise public powers of sovereignty, administration, or in the case of State Mercantile Companies that implement public policies or provide services of general economic interest.

In these cases, the jurisdictional bodies may effect declaration of criminal accountability in the case of these noting that it is a law-based scheme created by the promoters, founders, administrators or representatives in order to avoid eventual criminal accountability.

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

TITLE III
On penalties

CHAPTER II
On application of penalties

SUBCHAPTER 1. GENERAL RULES ON APPLICATION OF PENALTIES

Article 62

Principals of an attempted crime shall have a punishment imposed that is lower by one or two degrees to that set by Law for the consummated crime, to the extent deemed appropriate, in view of the danger inherent to the attempt and to the degree of execution achieved.

Article 63

Accessories of a consummated or attempted crime shall be sentenced to a lower degree of punishment to that set by Law for the principals of the same offence.

TITLE XXIV
Offences against the International Community

CHAPTER II
Offences of genocide

Article 607
2. The diffusion by any means of ideas or doctrines that deny or justify the offences defined in the previous paragraph of this Article, or whose objective is to rehabilitate regimes or institutions that support practices that cause such offences shall be punishable with a term of imprisonment of one to two years.

TITLE XXIV
Offences against the International Community

CHAPTER IV
General Provisions

Article 615
Procuring, conspiring in and soliciting the commission of the offences contained in this Title shall be punishable with a sentence of one or two degrees lower than that imposed for the full commission of the offence.

Article 615 bis
1. The authority or military commander or whoever effectively acts as a military commander who fails to adopt the measures within his or her control to avoid the commission of offences contained in Chapters II, II bis and II of this Title by forces under his or her effective command or control shall be sentenced in the same way as those actually committing the offences in question.
2. If the conduct referred to in the previous paragraph was the result of recklessness the sentence shall be reduced by one or two degrees.
3. The authority or military commander or whoever effectively acts as a military commander who fails to adopt the measures within his or her control to prosecute the offences contained in Chapters II, II bis and III of this Title by forces under his or her effective command or control shall be punished with a sentence of two degrees lower than that imposed on those actually committing the offence in question.
4. Any superior not included in the above paragraphs who, within his or her effective sphere of responsibility, does not adopt those measures within his or her control to avoid the commission by his or her subordinates of offences contained in Chapters II, II bis and III of this Title shall be sentenced in the same way as those actually committing the offences in question.
5. Any superior who does not adopt the measures within his or her control to prosecute the offences contained in Chapters II, II bis and III of this Title committed by subordinates shall be punished with a sentence of two degrees lower than that imposed on those actually committing the offence in question.
6. Any civil servant or authority that, without engaging in conduct referred to in the previous paragraphs, failed, in breach of his or her obligations, to encourage the prosecution of any of the offences contained in Chapters II, II bis and III of this Title of which he or she has notice shall be disqualified from holding public office or employment for a period of between two and six years.

Article 616
In the event that any of the offences included within this Title and in the previous Title is committed by an authority or civil servant, such person shall, in addition to the sentences stated for such offences, be disqualified from holding public office for a period of between ten and twenty years; if such offences were committed by a private individual, the judges or courts may disqualify such person from holding public office or employment for a period of between one and ten years.

Article 616 bis
Under no circumstances shall the provisions of Article 20.7 of this Code apply to those who follow orders to commit or participate in the situations referred to in Chapters II and II bis of this title.