Chapter 15 - Offences against the administration of justice

Section 7 - Falsification of evidence

(1) A person, who for the purpose of having an innocent person sentenced or otherwise to cause damage to another person, conceals, destroys, defaces, alters or otherwise falsifies an object, document or other item necessary as evidence before a court or in criminal investigations and that he knows to be of significance in the matter, shall be sentenced for falsification of evidence to a fine or to imprisonment for at most two years.

(2) A sentence for falsification of evidence shall be imposed also on a person who, for a purpose referred to in subsection 1, submits a piece of evidence that he or she knows to be false or falsified to be used as evidence in court or in criminal investigations, or himself or herself uses it in a misleading manner.

Section 8 - Aggravated falsification of evidence

If, in the falsification of evidence,

(1) serious danger arises of an innocent person being sentenced to imprisonment or to another severe penal sanction,
(2) the offence pertains to particularly important evidence, or
(3) the offence is committed in a particularly methodical manner,

and the offence is aggravated also when assessed as a whole, the offender shall be sentenced for aggravated falsification of evidence to imprisonment for at least four months and at most six years.

A new section 12 a shall be added to Chapter 15 of the Penal Code (39/1889) enacted on 19 December 1889, as follows:

Chapter 15 – Offences against the administration of justice (563/1998)

Section 12 a – Offences against the administration of justice by the International Criminal Court

For the purposes of application of the provisions on false statement, false denunciation, falsification of evidence, and threatening a person to be heard in the administration of justice, “a court of law” shall also mean the International Criminal Court and “criminal investigations” shall also mean an investigation referred to in the Statute of the International Criminal Court.