Article 169 Spanish Criminal Code: Threats

Article 169 of the Spanish Criminal Code punishes threatening another person with a harm that would itself constitute a serious offence. What determines the penalty is not the words used but their structure: a conditional threat, one that demands money or imposes some other condition, carries imprisonment of up to five years, while an unconditional threat carries six months to two years. Threats made in writing, by telephone or through any medium of communication are punished in the upper half, which in practice means that most cases arising from messaging applications and electronic mail fall into the aggravated bracket.

Wording of Article 169 of the Spanish Criminal Code

Elements of the offence

1. The announcement of a future harm which, if carried out, would amount to one of the serious offences listed. A threat to do something lawful, or to commit only a minor offence, is outside this provision.
2. A harm directed at the person threatened, at that person’s family or at others closely connected to them.
3. Seriousness and credibility. The announcement must be capable, assessed objectively and in context, of producing genuine fear; expressions uttered in the heat of an argument and understood by everyone present as venting do not qualify.
4. Where the aggravated form is charged, the demand of a sum or the imposition of a condition, and whether that purpose was in fact achieved.

Defence strategy

Absence of seriousness in context. This is the argument that resolves the majority of cases. Words spoken during a heated exchange between neighbours, in a dispute over a community of owners or in the course of a separation are assessed in their full context, including the previous relationship between the parties, the immediacy of any means of carrying the threat out and the complainant’s own subsequent conduct. Where the complainant continued to deal with the accused normally, or reported the matter only weeks later in the course of an unrelated dispute, the requirement of genuine fear is difficult to sustain.

Reclassification to article 171 or to a minor offence. The threatened harm must be one of the serious offences listed. Where what was announced amounts to damage below the criminal threshold, an insult or an unspecified retaliation, the correct provision is article 171 and, in the least serious cases, the minor offence punished only by a fine. Since the classification adopted in the initial police report is habitually the most severe available, this argument is made at the earliest procedural stage.

The integrity of the electronic evidence. Where the case rests on messages, their authenticity and completeness are open to challenge: screenshots without the original device, conversations produced in extract with the preceding exchanges omitted, and messages sent from an account to which others had access. The defence requests the production of the complete conversation and, where the point is material, a forensic examination of the device, because the surrounding exchanges frequently transform the meaning of the passage relied on.

Withdrawal, mediation and the family context. Where the threat arises within a family or neighbourhood dispute, the practical objective is often a resolution that removes the complainant’s interest in the prosecution, whether through an agreement on the underlying dispute or through mutual restraining undertakings. Outside the domestic violence jurisdiction, in which the prosecution proceeds regardless, this route ordinarily produces either a discontinuance or a fine, and it avoids the criminal record that would affect a residence application.

• Threats and coercion: defence service
• Threats and coercion in Alicante
• Spanish Criminal Code by article
• Spanish-language entry

This entry is provided for information only and does not constitute legal advice. The application of any provision depends on the circumstances of the individual case and requires examination of the case file by a qualified lawyer.