Article 57 Spanish Criminal Code: court-ordered bans

1. In offences of homicide, abortion, injury, offences against liberty, torture and offences against moral integrity, trafficking in human beings, offences against sexual liberty and indemnity, privacy, the right to one’s own image and the inviolability of the home, honour, property, the socio-economic order and family relations, the judicial authorities may, having regard to the seriousness of the acts or the danger the offender represents, order in their judgments one or more of the prohibitions provided for in Article 48, for a period not exceeding ten years for serious offences or five years for less serious offences.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, where the person is sentenced to imprisonment and the judge or court orders one or more of those prohibitions, their duration shall exceed the prison term imposed by between one and ten years for serious offences and between one and five years for less serious ones. In that case the prison sentence and the prohibitions shall necessarily be served simultaneously.

2. In the offences listed in the first paragraph of subsection 1 committed against a spouse or former spouse, or a person linked to the offender by an analogous emotional relationship even without cohabitation, or against descendants, ascendants or siblings by blood, adoption or affinity, of the offender or of the spouse or partner, or against minors or persons with disabilities in need of special protection living with the offender or subject to the parental authority, guardianship, curatorship, fostering or de facto care of the spouse or partner, or against a person otherwise integrated in the core of family life, as well as against persons who, owing to their particular vulnerability, are in the offender’s custody or care in public or private institutions, the penalty provided for in Article 48.2 shall be imposed in all cases, for a period not exceeding ten years for serious offences or five for less serious ones, without prejudice to the second paragraph above.

3. The prohibitions of Article 48 may also be imposed, for a period not exceeding six months, for the offences listed in the first paragraph of subsection 1 that are classified as minor offences.

Working translation prepared by Société Juridique from the consolidated Spanish text published by the Official State Gazette. It has no official status: the only authoritative version is the Spanish original, available at the Official State Gazette and reproduced verbatim in our Spanish-language entry for this provision. Source: Organic Law 10/1995 of 23 November, the Spanish Criminal Code.