The Crime of Perjury: Lying on the Stand and Its Consequences

The oral trial is the search for material truth. Therefore, the Criminal Code punishes with extreme severity anyone who attempts to corrupt that search through lies. The crime of perjury (Art. 458 et seq. CP) is a powerful but also complex tool that protects the reliability of personal evidence (witnesses, experts).

Who Can Commit the Crime? Witnesses, Experts, and Interpreters

The perpetrator of this crime is specific. It can only be committed by:

• Witnesses: People who testify about facts they have witnessed. They have a legal obligation to tell the truth after swearing or promising to do so.
• Experts or Interpreters: Professionals who contribute their technical or linguistic knowledge to the process. They falsify the truth if they maliciously mistranslate or issue an expert report knowing its falsity.

The penalty is imprisonment from 6 months to 2 years and a fine. However, if the false testimony is given against the defendant in a criminal case for a serious crime, the penalty is increased to imprisonment from 1 to 3 years (and if someone is convicted as a result, the penalty is even higher).

The Accused's Fundamental Right Not to Tell the Truth

It is one of the great paradoxes and guarantees of our system: the accused cannot commit the crime of perjury. Their right to a defense (Art. 24 CE) includes the right not to testify against themselves and not to confess guilt, which protects their right to lie in their own statement. They are not sworn in and cannot be prosecuted for it. This does not mean that lying benefits them; if they are caught in an obvious lie, their credibility before the judge plummets, but no new case is opened against them.

The 'Deduction of Testimony': How to Act Against a Lie

If, during a cross-examination, we as lawyers detect that a witness for the opposing party is blatantly lying, our strategy is to corner them with incisive questions until their contradiction is evident. At that moment, at the end of the cross-examination, we request the Judge to "deduce testimony". This means the Judge orders a copy of the trial recording to be sent to the Duty Court to investigate the witness for a possible crime of perjury. It is the most powerful weapon to discredit a mendacious witness in real-time.

Consequences for the Main Process

If it is proven that a conviction was based on testimony that was later proven to be false, a Writ of Review can be filed with the Supreme Court, an extraordinary way to annul the final judgment and hold a new trial. It is one of the few cases that allow breaking the 'res judicata'.