False Testimony Defense Lawyers

The crime of false testimony (Arts. 458 to 462 of the Spanish Criminal Code) is one of the pillars of Chapter VI of Title XX on crimes against the Administration of Justice. The protected legal interest is the proper jurisdictional function: the reliability of the evidence on which every judicial decision rests. When a witness, expert or interpreter deliberately lies about facts essential to the ruling, it not only harms the directly affected party but erodes the entire system of guarantees. Consolidated Supreme Court case-law has refined the elements of the type with a demanding canon: it requires direct intent, conscious falsehood about relevant facts and potential capacity to alter the outcome of the proceedings.

The Criminal Code distinguishes several modalities graduated according to the type of proceedings and the active subject. Art. 458.1 sanctions the witness who lies in judicial proceedings; Art. 458.2 aggravates the penalty when the testimony is given in criminal proceedings against the defendant and even more when it contributes to a conviction. Art. 459 equates experts and interpreters who willfully lie in their reports or translations, adding professional disqualification. Art. 460 typifies substantial alteration of the statement without openly lying: maliciously omitting essential facts or changing them. Art. 461 punishes the knowing presentation of false witnesses, experts or interpreters and the inducement to false testimony. And Art. 462 establishes the so-called "golden key": timely retraction before a firm sentence is handed down in the proceedings exempts from penalty.

Penalties are strictly graduated. False testimony under Art. 458.1 carries 6 months to 2 years' prison and 3 to 6 months' fine. When given in criminal proceedings against the defendant (Art. 458.2), the penalty rises to 1 to 3 years' prison and 6 to 12 months' fine; if it has led to a conviction, the penalty is imposed in its upper half. For experts and interpreters (Art. 459), the foregoing penalties apply in their upper half with special disqualification of 6 to 12 years. The substantial alteration of Art. 460 sanctions with 6 months to 2 years' prison and fine. The inducement and presentation of false witnesses of Art. 461 follow the regime of the false-testimony author. Alongside the principal penalty, derived civil liability operates: if the victim has suffered unjust conviction, pretrial detention or property damage, the false witness responds financially, with amounts that in serious cases may exceed €100,000.

Technical defense is built on five axes consolidated by case-law. The first is the absence of intent: false testimony requires consciousness and will to lie; memory error, perception distorted by trial stress or human fallibility exclude the type. The second is the irrelevance of the fact: the lie must concern elements essential to the ruling; peripheral details or circumstantial ornaments are atypical. The third is the timely retraction of Art. 462 CP: if the witness rectifies before a firm sentence is handed down, they are exempt from penalty (only a 3 to 6-month fine is imposed); technical management of the procedural moment is decisive. The fourth is insurmountable fear of Art. 20.6 CP: if the witness lied under serious, real and imminent threat, the exemption may apply. The fifth is the exemption for kinship of Art. 416 LECrim: spouse, ascendants, descendants and siblings of the accused are not obliged to testify against them; if they declare falsely to protect them, Supreme Court doctrine significantly modulates the criminal response.

In current forensic practice, false-testimony proceedings grow linked to gender violence cases (instrumentalized complaints in marital crises), labor dismissals (company or worker witnesses with pre-built narratives), inheritance conflicts and high-value civil litigation. The reform by Organic Law 14/2022 and the consolidation of constitutional case-law on witness evidence have tightened the judicial examination of consistency, persistence and plausibility of testimony. At Alonso Sala we intervene both in defense of those accused of false testimony and as private prosecution when our client has been the victim of mendacious testimony. We articulate psychological credibility expert reports (SVA-CBCA methodology), forensic-linguistic analysis of transcripts and procedural chronologies that allow detection of objective contradictions. We treat each case with the conviction that procedural integrity is a legal interest of the highest value and that the client's freedom in these crimes usually depends on a single factor: the timely technical management of retraction or, failing that, the rigorous proof of absence of intent.