https://alonsosala.com/en/blog Criminal law blog: guides, case-law analysis and legal news by Alonso Sala criminal defense lawyers in Madrid. en Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/favicon.png https://alonsosala.com https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/community-service-penalty-spain-art-49-cp https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/community-service-penalty-spain-art-49-cp What a community service sentence in Spain involves, why it requires your consent, how many hours a day it can last and how it can be fitted around work or sick leave. Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/failure-to-return-from-prison-leave-breach-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/failure-to-return-from-prison-leave-breach-spain Judgment 463/2026 of 2 July confirms that an inmate who does not return to prison after leave breaches a custodial sentence and faces six months to one year in prison, not a fine. An analysis of the doctrine and its consequences for the defence. Sun, 27 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/partial-reparation-mitigation-without-admitting-guilt-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/partial-reparation-mitigation-without-admitting-guilt-spain Spanish Supreme Court Judgment 486/2026 of 8 July grants the reparation mitigation of Article 21.5 CP to a defendant who deposited part of the sum claimed before trial while maintaining his innocence. The difference between paying into court, posting a bond and having assets attached. Sun, 27 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/sufficient-deceit-fraud-findings-of-fact-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/sufficient-deceit-fraud-findings-of-fact-spain Spanish Supreme Court Judgment 495/2026 of 13 July holds that findings describing a sale offered in the knowledge that nothing would be delivered are enough for a fraud conviction. What sufficient deceit means, when a contract becomes a crime and what the defence should check. Sun, 27 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/undercover-agent-offer-not-entrapment-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/undercover-agent-offer-not-entrapment-spain Supreme Court Judgment 492/2026 of 10 July sets out in detail when an undercover officer’s conduct becomes entrapment: prior suspicion, essentially passive investigation and the burden of proof. The same judgment acquits a co-defendant because of an unreliable identification at trial. Sun, 27 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/abbreviated-criminal-procedure-spain-lecrim https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/abbreviated-criminal-procedure-spain-lecrim The route through which most criminal cases in Spain are processed. Scope, preliminary proceedings, intermediate stage, preliminary hearing, trial and appeals, with the differences from ordinary committal proceedings and from fast-track trials. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-118-criminal-procedure-right-of-defence-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-118-criminal-procedure-right-of-defence-spain Article 118 LECrim sets out when the right of defence begins and what it contains: information about the facts, access to the case file before making a statement, a lawyer of free choice, a private interview, silence and the privilege against self-incrimination. We go through the wording and the practical traps of each letter. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-141-penal-code-conspiracy-proposal-homicide-murder https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-141-penal-code-conspiracy-proposal-homicide-murder As a rule the Spanish Criminal Code punishes acts that have been carried out. Article 141 CP is one of the listed exceptions: it moves criminal liability back to the preparatory stage and punishes incitement, conspiracy and proposal to commit homicide or murder with the penalty reduced by one or two degrees. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-236-penal-code-taking-back-your-own-property https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-236-penal-code-taking-back-your-own-property Driving your car out of the garage without paying for the repair, removing leased machinery or retrieving an attached asset from deposit can be an offence even though the item is yours. Article 236 CP protects lawful possession against the owner, with a fine of three to twelve months. We go through its elements, its penalties and how it is told apart from theft and from Article 455 CP. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-244-penal-code-taking-vehicle-without-consent https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-244-penal-code-taking-vehicle-without-consent Taking a car or a motorcycle to use it and then return it is not ordinary theft: Article 244 CP creates a provision of its own built around a forty-eight-hour window for giving the vehicle back. That window decides whether the act carries community service or a fine, or is tried straight away as theft or robbery. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-246-penal-code-altering-boundary-markers https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-246-penal-code-altering-boundary-markers Moving a boundary stone, shifting a fence or ploughing beyond the line can be a criminal offence in Spain. Article 246 CP punishes altering boundaries, markers and landmarks with a fine, and turns the whole case on one figure: the benefit obtained and the 400 euro threshold. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-265-penal-code-damage-armed-forces-police-equipment https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-265-penal-code-damage-armed-forces-police-equipment Damaging a police vehicle, a military installation or any other asset assigned to the service of the Spanish Armed Forces or the State security forces has its own provision in the Criminal Code. Article 265 CP carries 2 to 4 years in prison, but only where the damage exceeds 1,000 euros; below that figure the case falls back to ordinary criminal damage. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-385-penal-code-serious-risk-road-traffic https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-385-penal-code-serious-risk-road-traffic Article 385 CP punishes creating a serious risk to road traffic by placing obstacles, spilling substances or tampering with signage, and also failing to restore the safety of the road where there is a duty to do so. It is the only offence in the road safety chapter that does not require driving. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-509-criminal-procedure-incommunicado-detention-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-509-criminal-procedure-incommunicado-detention-spain Being held incommunicado is the most restrictive measure that can be ordered against a detained or imprisoned person. Article 509 LECrim subjects it to two closed grounds, a reasoned court order and a five-day limit. We explain which rights may be removed through Article 527 LECrim, which may not, and what guarantees survive. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-561-penal-code-false-alarm-hoax-emergency https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-561-penal-code-false-alarm-hoax-emergency Reporting a danger that does not exist and thereby mobilising police, firefighters or rescue services has its own offence in Spain: article 561 CP. Its decisive element is not the lie itself but the actual mobilisation of the emergency services that follows from it. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-66-penal-code-sentencing-rules https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-66-penal-code-sentencing-rules The penalty range attached to an offence is only the starting point. Article 66 CP holds the eight rules that force the court to move within that range in a specific way depending on the mitigating and aggravating circumstances, and it is what turns "six months to three years" into an actual sentence. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-757-lecrim-scope-abbreviated-procedure-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-757-lecrim-scope-abbreviated-procedure-spain Article 757 of the Spanish Criminal Procedure Act decides which track a criminal case follows: up to nine years of custodial penalty, the abbreviated procedure; above that, the ordinary procedure. Steps, deadlines, the moment for a plea agreement and, in part, the trial court all depend on that boundary. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-779-criminal-procedure-abbreviated-proceedings-order https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-779-criminal-procedure-abbreviated-proceedings-order Article 779 LECrim contains the five possible ways out of preliminary proceedings. The fourth is the transformation order, the ruling that closes the investigation, fixes the punishable acts and identifies who they are imputed to. We explain each of the five decisions, their requirements and what happens next. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-962-criminal-procedure-immediate-trial-minor-offence https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/article-962-criminal-procedure-immediate-trial-minor-offence The police summon the parties and the trial is held the same day before the duty judge. Article 962 LECrim governs that mechanism for five groups of minor offences, with one decisive detail: the trial may go ahead even if the person summoned does not appear. We explain the list, the summonses and the way out offered by Article 963 LECrim. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/articles-490-495-criminal-procedure-citizens-arrest-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/articles-490-495-criminal-procedure-citizens-arrest-spain A security guard, a shop manager or any citizen may make an arrest in the seven cases listed in Article 490 LECrim. Article 495 LECrim sets the limit that is broken most often: there is no arrest for minor offences save in one exception. Outside those cases, holding someone may itself be an offence. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/articles-637-641-criminal-procedure-case-dismissal-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/articles-637-641-criminal-procedure-case-dismissal-spain The closure of a criminal case does not always mean the same thing. Article 637 LECrim governs free dismissal, which ends the proceedings definitively, and Article 641 LECrim the provisional one, which suspends them pending new material. We compare the two article by article, with their grounds, their effects and the appeals available. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/building-without-licence-art-319-penal-code-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/building-without-licence-art-319-penal-code-spain Art. 319 CP does not punish building without a licence: it punishes building what could never have been authorised on certain classes of land. The sentence, who answers for it and whether the court orders demolition all follow from that distinction. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/cassation-interest-criminal-appeal-spain-lecrim https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/cassation-interest-criminal-appeal-spain-lecrim The route opened by Act 41/2015 to bring a cassation appeal against appeal judgments of the Provincial Courts. When it lies, how it is prepared, what must be shown and why refusal for lack of cassation interest is made by simple ruling. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/concurrence-of-offences-art-73-77-cp-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/concurrence-of-offences-art-73-77-cp-spain Four counts in an indictment do not simply mean four sentences added together. The Spanish Criminal Code distinguishes conflict of laws, real concurrence, ideal concurrence and medial concurrence, and each rule produces a different final figure from the same facts. The rules of Arts. 8, 73, 76 and 77 CP, with worked examples. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/confiscation-vehicle-instrumentalities-crime-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/confiscation-vehicle-instrumentalities-crime-spain Article 385 bis CP does not order the car to be confiscated: it classifies it as an instrumentality and refers to Articles 127 and 128. What confiscation reaches, how proportionality works, what happens when the asset belongs to a third party, and what can be done before judgment. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/defamation-private-prosecution-conciliation-one-year-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/defamation-private-prosecution-conciliation-one-year-spain Offences against honour are not pursued by a police report. They require a private prosecution by the injured party, a prior conciliation hearing under art. 804 LECrim and a one-year limitation period, the shortest in the Criminal Code. A mistake in any of the three closes the door. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/disqualification-penalties-arts-39-47-cp-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/disqualification-penalties-arts-39-47-cp-spain Absolute disqualification permanently removes the office already held; the special disqualification of Art. 45 CP only suspends the exercise of a profession while it lasts. And a driving ban of two years and one day is not recovered on completion: the licence must be obtained again. The differences are in the text of Arts. 39 to 47 CP. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/enforcement-criminal-judgment-spain-lecrim https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/enforcement-criminal-judgment-spain-lecrim What happens once a criminal judgment becomes final: the declaration of finality, sentence computation, the decision on suspension or substitution by expulsion, formal requirements, committal to prison and the incidents of the enforcement file. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/failure-to-prevent-offences-art-450-cp-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/failure-to-prevent-offences-art-450-cp-spain Witnessing an assault and doing nothing can be a criminal offence. Art. 450 CP punishes anyone who, able to intervene immediately and without risk, fails to prevent an offence against life, physical integrity, liberty or sexual freedom, and also anyone who fails to alert the authorities. Elements, penalties and the line against Art. 11 and Art. 195 CP. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/flora-fauna-offences-illegal-hunting-fishing-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/flora-fauna-offences-illegal-hunting-fishing-spain Hunting or fishing outside the rules is not always an administrative fine. Arts. 332 to 336 CP punish conduct affecting protected species, poaching on someone else’s shoot and the use of poison or non-selective methods, with disqualification from hunting or fishing even when the sentence is a fine. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/identification-parade-spain-368-370-lecrim https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/identification-parade-spain-368-370-lecrim Identifying the perpetrator is one of the most fragile points in a criminal case. How the parade under Arts. 368 to 370 LECrim must be carried out, the lawyer role, why photo identification is not a parade, and the errors that allow its weight to be challenged. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/indirect-perpetration-art-28-cp-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/indirect-perpetration-art-28-cp-spain Art. 28 CP treats as a principal anyone who carries out an act through another person used as an instrument. Someone who was never at the scene may be liable as a principal, and the person who acted may not be liable at all. Where the line runs against inducement, necessary cooperation and complicity. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/limitation-period-for-penalties-arts-133-134-cp-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/limitation-period-for-penalties-arts-133-134-cp-spain A final sentence has an expiry date. Arts. 133 and 134 CP set periods of between one and thirty years depending on the penalty imposed, and the clock starts with finality or with breach. The difference from limitation of the offence is not a nuance: it changes what is measured, from when, and what stops the count. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/mitigating-circumstance-confession-art-21-4-cp-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/mitigating-circumstance-confession-art-21-4-cp-spain Confessing does not reduce a sentence simply because the facts are admitted: Art. 21.4 CP requires the confession to be made before the person learns that judicial proceedings are directed against them. Outside that window there is the analogous route of Art. 21.7 CP, with different effects and a boundary that should not be confused with a plea agreement. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/mitigating-circumstance-fit-of-passion-art-21-3-cp-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/mitigating-circumstance-fit-of-passion-art-21-3-cp-spain Art. 21.3 CP mitigates the liability of a person who acts on account of causes or stimuli so powerful that they produce a fit of passion, obfuscation or another emotional state of similar intensity. It is a narrow provision: it demands an external and legitimate stimulus, a genuine impairment of self-control, and a temporal link that most cases fail to satisfy. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/mitigating-circumstance-reparation-of-harm-art-21-5-cp-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/mitigating-circumstance-reparation-of-harm-art-21-5-cp-spain Reparation of the harm is the most accessible mitigating circumstance in the Spanish Criminal Code and also the worst managed. Art. 21.5 CP requires neither remorse nor payment in full: it requires an objective act of repair or of reducing the effects, carried out before the trial hearing, and how much it is worth depends on how it is documented. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/nullity-of-proceedings-criminal-case-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/nullity-of-proceedings-criminal-case-spain Nullity of proceedings is not a wildcard for reopening whatever went badly. It is a strictly defined remedy that requires a ground listed in Art. 238 LOPJ, actual prejudice to the defence and the right procedural route, and which in its exceptional form under Art. 241 LOPJ carries a twenty-day limit and costs against whoever loses. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/offences-against-religious-feelings-art-522-526-cp-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/offences-against-religious-feelings-art-522-526-cp-spain Arts. 522 to 526 CP protect freedom of conscience, religious feelings and respect for the memory of the dead. They are narrowly construed, with an exhaustive list of means and a demanding subjective element, and they sit on the boundary with freedom of expression. Conduct, penalties and the line against Art. 510 CP. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/ordinary-committal-proceedings-spain-lecrim https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/ordinary-committal-proceedings-spain-lecrim The route reserved for the most serious offences. What the committal file is, when the committal order of Art. 384 LECrim is issued, how the closing of the investigation is reviewed and what happens at trial before the Provincial Court. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/permanent-location-penalty-art-37-cp-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/permanent-location-penalty-art-37-cp-spain Permanent location is not informal house arrest: Art. 35 CP classifies it as a custodial penalty and breaching it leads to Art. 468 CP. Art. 37 CP decides duration, place, non-continuous service and electronic monitoring, while Arts. 53.1 and 71.2 CP open two further routes into it. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/phone-electronic-interception-spain-lecrim-588-bis-ter https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/phone-electronic-interception-spain-lecrim-588-bis-ter Where a case rests on recorded conversations, the first thing the defence reviews is not what was said but how it came to be heard. The general regime of Arts. 588 bis a to 588 bis k and 588 ter a to 588 ter m LECrim: principles, judicial order, time limits, extensions, incidental findings and nullity. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/planning-malfeasance-art-320-cp-public-official https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/planning-malfeasance-art-320-cp-public-official Art. 320 CP does not punish the person who builds but the public official who reports favourably on an unlawful licence, votes for it, conceals the breach during an inspection or fails to inspect when required. What the offence requires, what it carries and why it takes fifteen years to become time-barred. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/police-records-versus-criminal-records-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/police-records-versus-criminal-records-spain A detention that ended without charges leaves no criminal record, but it can leave a police trail. They are two separate registers under two separate rules: Art. 136 CP and Royal Decree 95/2009 for criminal records, and Organic Law 7/2021 for police data. Each is cleared at a different counter and on its own timetable. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/police-report-spain-292-297-lecrim-challenge https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/police-report-spain-292-297-lecrim-challenge Almost every criminal case in Spain starts with a police report, and almost nobody knows what weight it carries. What it must contain under Art. 292 LECrim, why Art. 297 treats it as a complaint rather than evidence, which of its parts can reach the trial, and how it is challenged. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/pre-trial-release-bail-criminal-proceedings-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/pre-trial-release-bail-criminal-proceedings-spain Between remand in custody and unconditional freedom there is a middle ground that shapes daily life for anyone under investigation: pre-trial release. The Spanish Criminal Procedure Act builds it out of two elements, the duty to report to the court and bail, and subjects both to a rule worth knowing: they can be reviewed throughout the case. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/preliminary-questions-criminal-proceedings-spain-lecrim https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/preliminary-questions-criminal-proceedings-spain-lecrim When a criminal court decides a civil or administrative question itself and when it must wait for another jurisdiction to decide it. Devolutive and non-devolutive questions, suspension of civil proceedings and the practical effects on the defence. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/restorative-justice-victim-offender-mediation-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/restorative-justice-victim-offender-mediation-spain Mediation does not make criminal proceedings disappear, but it produces measurable effects: the mitigating circumstance of reparation, a condition of suspension under Article 84.1.1 CP and, for juveniles, discontinuance of the file. Requirements under Article 15 of Law 4/2015, timing, and the bar in gender violence cases. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/secrecy-of-investigation-art-302-lecrim-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/secrecy-of-investigation-art-302-lecrim-spain A case being declared secret does not mean the defence is powerless, or that secrecy can last as long as the investigating judge decides. Art. 302 LECrim ties the measure to two strictly defined purposes, to a one-month limit per decision, and to compulsory lifting ten days before the investigation closes. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/security-measures-arts-95-108-cp-spain https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/security-measures-arts-95-108-cp-spain An acquittal based on a full defence does not always end with the person walking free. The Spanish Criminal Code reserves security measures for those cases: they rest on criminal dangerousness rather than culpability, and they have their own limits on duration, their own review regime and a system for serving them alongside a sentence. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/undercover-agent-spain-282-bis-lecrim-entrapment https://alonsosala.com/en/blog/undercover-agent-spain-282-bis-lecrim-entrapment Police infiltration is available only in investigations into organised crime and only with a reasoned decision. The requirements of Art. 282 bis LECrim, the assumed identity, the agent immunity, the online undercover agent, and the line between entrapment and lawful evidence gathering. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT