Article 550 Spanish Criminal Code: Assault on Police and Public Officers

Article 550 of the Spanish Criminal Code punishes attacking, or offering serious violent resistance to, a person in authority, a police officer or a public official acting in the exercise of their duties. It is one of the charges most frequently brought against foreign visitors after an incident with the Policía Local or the Guardia Civil in the nightlife areas of Benidorm, Alicante and Torrevieja, and it almost always arrives combined with a charge of bodily harm and, where the arrest was resisted, with article 556. The distinction between the two provisions determines whether the case carries a realistic risk of imprisonment.

Wording of Article 550 of the Spanish Criminal Code

Elements of the offence

1. A victim who is a person in authority, an agent of authority or a public official. Teaching and healthcare staff are expressly assimilated. The Policía Local, the Policía Nacional, the Guardia Civil and municipal traffic wardens acting as agents are all covered.
2. The victim must be acting in the exercise of their functions or the act must occur on the occasion of those functions. An off-duty officer involved in a private dispute falls outside the provision.
3. Either an assault, understood as a physical attack directed at the officer, or serious resistance accompanied by violence or serious intimidation. Merely negative or passive resistance is not enough and falls, at most, under article 556.
4. Knowledge that the victim holds that status. Where officers are in plain clothes and did not identify themselves, this element must be proved and not assumed.

Defence strategy

The boundary with article 556. This is the decisive line of defence in most cases. Article 550 requires an attack or active violent resistance; struggling to avoid being handcuffed, bracing the arms, going limp or pulling away while being taken to the patrol car is negative resistance and is properly charged, at most, under article 556, which carries no realistic prospect of imprisonment. Reclassification from article 550 to article 556 changes the exposure from years to a fine, and it is achieved by a detailed reading of the officers’ own account of the movements attributed to the defendant.

Scrutiny of the police account. Spanish law attaches no legal presumption of truth to a police officer’s testimony in criminal proceedings: it is evidence to be weighed like any other, and where the only evidence is the account of the officers who are also the complainants, it requires corroboration. The defence obtains the custody record, the incident report, the body-worn and municipal CCTV footage and the medical reports on both the defendant and the officers, and examines whether the injuries described are consistent with an attack or with the use of force during a takedown.

Unlawful police action and self-defence. The protection of the provision covers the lawful exercise of office. Where the officers acted outside their powers, used force that was manifestly disproportionate or continued after the defendant had ceased to resist, the defence of self-defence under article 20.4 of the Criminal Code becomes available, and at the least a partial defence. This requires an early and precise complaint on the record, because the argument is difficult to construct months later.

Intoxication and the sentencing reduction. Where the incident followed heavy drinking, an attenuating or partial defence under articles 21.1 and 21.2 of the Criminal Code may be established through the breath reading and the custody medical examination. Combined with compensation for the officers’ injuries and an agreed disposition, this normally produces a sentence in the lowest part of the range together with suspension, which is what matters to a defendant who needs to leave Spain and to preserve a clean record for visa purposes.

• Assault on authority and resistance: defence service
• Article 147: bodily harm
• 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.