Duress - national proceedings

Latvia

Latvia - Criminal Procedure Code 2005 (2022) EN

Section 379. Termination of Criminal Proceedings, Releasing a Person from Criminal Liability

(1) An investigator with a consent of a supervising prosecutor, prosecutor or a court may terminate criminal proceedings, if:

5) the person committed the criminal offence during the time period when he or she was subject to human trafficking and was forced to commit the offence.

Rome Statute

Article 31 Grounds for excluding criminal responsibility

1. In addition to other grounds for excluding criminal responsibility provided for in this Statute, a person shall not be criminally responsible if, at the time of that person's conduct:

(d) The conduct which is alleged to constitute a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court has been caused by duress resulting from a threat of imminent death or of continuing or imminent serious bodily harm against that person or another person, and the person acts necessarily and reasonably to avoid this threat, provided that the person does not intend to cause a greater harm than the one sought to be avoided. Such a threat may either be:

(i) Made by other persons; or

(ii) Constituted by other circumstances beyond that person's control.