Article 464 Spanish Criminal Code: Intimidation of Witnesses and Parties

Article 464 of the Spanish Criminal Code punishes with imprisonment of one to four years and a fine the attempt, by violence or intimidation, to influence a complainant, a party, an accused person, a lawyer, a court agent, an expert, an interpreter or a witness so as to change their conduct in the proceedings. The penalty is imposed in the upper half where the objective is achieved, and the second paragraph punishes separately any act of reprisal against those persons. The provision is charged frequently in the aftermath of family and neighbourhood disputes, where a message sent to a witness is treated as an attempt to influence the case.

Wording of Article 464 of the Spanish Criminal Code

Elements of the offence

1. Pending proceedings, whether criminal, civil, employment or administrative, and a victim who occupies one of the positions listed.
2. Violence or intimidation. Persuasion, insistence, an offer of money or an appeal to family loyalty do not satisfy this element, however improper they may be.
3. The purpose of causing the person to change their conduct in the proceedings, which must be established and not inferred from the mere fact of contact.
4. For the aggravated form, that the change in conduct actually occurred as a result.

Defence strategy

Absence of violence or intimidation. This is the decisive line. A message asking a witness to tell the truth, a request to withdraw a complaint, an expression of reproach or an offer to settle the underlying dispute involves no intimidation. The defence produces the complete exchange rather than the extract relied on, because the surrounding messages ordinarily show the tone and purpose of the contact, and because a single sentence read in isolation is what usually founds the charge.

Absence of a purpose relating to the proceedings. Contact between relatives, neighbours or former partners who continue to share a school, a business or a building is inevitable, and the offence requires a purpose directed at the person’s conduct in the proceedings. Where the contact concerned the children, a debt or the property, and the proceedings were not mentioned, the element fails. The chronology of the contacts against the procedural milestones is prepared, since contact unrelated in time to any procedural step is difficult to link to it.

Excluding the aggravated form. The upper half applies only where the objective was achieved. A witness who did not change their statement, or who changed it for other reasons such as a defective initial account, does not bring the aggravated form into play. The defence compares the successive statements in the file and identifies the actual reason for any change, which is frequently apparent from the questions asked.

Concurrence with threats and with breach of a restraining order. Where the same conduct is charged under this article, under article 169 and as a breach of a restraining order, the defence addresses the concurrence, since a single message cannot be punished three times. The correct classification ordinarily absorbs the lesser offences, and arguing it in the pleadings on classification rather than at sentencing produces a materially lower aggregate penalty.

• Article 169: threats
• Article 468: breach of a restraining order
• Witness statements and dispensation
• 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.