Criminal Law Glossary | Rakh Abogados

Agente encubierto y agente provocador (undercover agent and agent provocateur): The agente encubierto, or undercover agent (art. 282 bis LECrim), lawfully investigates criminal conduct that is already under way, without taking part in its initiation or inducing its commission. The agente provocador, or agent provocateur, by contrast, is the one who takes the criminal initiative and brings about the commission of an offence that would not otherwise have occurred; involvement of an agent provocateur renders the proceedings void. See: International Drug Trafficking →
Agotamiento de la vía interna (exhaustion of domestic remedies): Admissibility requirement for an application before the European Court of Human Rights (art. 35.1 of the Convention): before turning to Strasbourg, the applicant must have exhausted ordinary Spanish judicial remedies and, where applicable, the amparo appeal before the Constitutional Court. See: Proceedings before the ECtHR →
Alevosía (treachery/premeditated ambush): Circumstance that elevates homicide to murder (asesinato) when the perpetrator uses means, methods or forms that are objectively suited to ensure the result, eliminating the victim's chances of defence. Case law distinguishes ambush-type alevosía (a prior ambush or trap), sudden or unexpected alevosía (an unforeseen, abrupt attack), and alevosía of helplessness (taking advantage of the victim's state of total defencelessness). See: Homicide and Murder Offences →
Arraigo, en extradición (settled ties to Spain): The requested person's family, employment and social ties (arraigo) to Spain are not, by themselves, a legal ground for refusing an extradition. They operate as a weighing factor within the precautionary measures of art. 505 LECrim (when seeking provisional release or its replacement by less burdensome measures), but not as a ground for opposing the extradition on the merits. See: Extradition Specialist →
Autoblanqueo (self-laundering): A form of money laundering in which the very person who committed the underlying offence reintroduces the proceeds into the legal economy. It requires specific intent: merely possessing, using or converting assets of illicit origin is not enough — there must also be the specific purpose of bringing them into lawful economic circulation, in keeping with the principle that no one may be punished twice for the same act. See: Money Laundering Offences →
Auxilio judicial internacional (international judicial assistance): Cooperation mechanism between judicial authorities of different countries for carrying out investigative measures (identifying account holders, requests to platforms, interception of communications) when the case has elements located outside Spain. See: Cybercrime and Crypto-asset Offences →

Beneficio económico directo o indirecto (direct or indirect economic benefit): Element of the intellectual property offence (art. 270.1 CP) that replaced the former "intent to profit" (ánimo de lucro) requirement: it requires that the benefit obtained by the infringer be real and evidenced by objective elements, not merely hypothetical. See: Intellectual and Industrial Property →
Business judgment rule: Defence standard applicable to business decisions taken within the director's legal powers, even where the final outcome proves mistaken or harmful: a poor outcome alone does not automatically turn the decision into unfair (disloyal) administration if it was adopted within the bounds of ordinary business discretion. See: Economic Criminal Law Lawyers →

Cadena de custodia (chain of custody): Control over the regularity of a piece of physical evidence from its seizure (for example, drugs or digital devices) through to its forensic analysis, including weighing and sealing. A break in the chain may lead to the evidence being excluded, although merely formal irregularities that do not compromise the identity or integrity of the seized item are not, on their own, sufficient to do so. See: Drug Trafficking Offences Specialists →
Cohecho, propio e impropio (bribery of a public official): Offence against Public Administration in which a public official solicits or accepts a bribe. Cohecho propio ("proper" bribery) seeks an act contrary to the official's duties; cohecho impropio ("improper" bribery) seeks an act the official was going to carry out anyway. It is a formal offence: the mere acceptance of the promise of a future bribe already completes the offence, without the bribe actually having to be handed over. See: Public Administration Offences Specialists →
Comisión de Control de los Ficheros de Interpol (Commission for the Control of INTERPOL's Files, CCF): Independent body responsible for overseeing that the processing of personal data within INTERPOL's systems complies with its Statute and its Rules on the Processing of Data. It can be asked to grant access to, rectify or delete a red notice or diffusion, as well as to order urgent provisional measures temporarily blocking such data. See: INTERPOL Red Notices →
Comisión rogatoria (letters rogatory): Classic instrument of international judicial assistance (art. 177 LECrim) by which a Spanish judge requests the judicial authority of another country to carry out an investigative measure outside Spanish territory, used when a swifter European instrument such as the European Investigation Order does not apply. See: International Criminal Law →
Compliance penal (criminal compliance): A company's internal control system — risk identification, decision-making protocols, a supervisory body with autonomous powers, a whistleblowing channel, a disciplinary system and its periodic review — whose existence and genuine effectiveness can operate as a defence exempting the legal entity from criminal liability. See: Economic Criminal Law Lawyers →
Condición de procedibilidad, en delitos societarios (procedural prerequisite for prosecution): Procedural requirement, set out in art. 296 CP, under which certain corporate offences may only be prosecuted following a prior complaint filed by the aggrieved party, unless they affect general interests or a plurality of persons; without that complaint, the proceedings must be dismissed. See: Abusive Resolutions at Shareholders' Meetings →

Difusión de Interpol (diffusion): Decentralised equivalent of the red notice: it is published directly by the requesting country's National Central Bureau, without the prior compliance review that INTERPOL's General Secretariat carries out on red notices proper. See: INTERPOL Red Notices →
Dispensa del deber de declarar, art. 416 LECrim (exemption from the duty to testify): Right exempting from testifying anyone who is or has been bound to the person under investigation by marriage or a similar emotional relationship. The Supreme Court has held that this right is incompatible with the reporting party's own position as victim of the acts, and since Organic Law 8/2021 it is excluded where the witness has already agreed to testify after being informed of this right, or is joined to the proceedings as a private prosecution. See: Domestic and Gender-based Violence →
Distracción de dinero (misapplication of money): Typical conduct of misappropriation (apropiación indebida) involving money received on deposit: it does not require that the money be incorporated into one's own estate in the strict sense, but rather that it be given a final destination other than the one agreed, with a vocation of permanence. See: Misappropriation of Money Held in Deposit →
Doble incriminación (principle of double criminality): Principle requiring that the act for which a person is sought constitute an offence both under the requesting State's law and under the Spanish Criminal Code; mere nominal coincidence of the offence is not enough — it requires a substantial correspondence between the objective and subjective elements of the offence under both legal systems. See: Extradition Specialist →
Dolo antecedente y dolo sobrevenido, subsequens (pre-existing intent and after-the-fact intent): Distinction used to differentiate fraud (estafa) from mere breach of contract: if the intention not to perform already existed at the time of contracting (dolo antecedente), there is fraud; if that intention arises only after the contract has been perfected (dolo subsequens), it is a mere civil breach with no criminal relevance. See: Commercial Fraud and Scams →
Dolo eventual (dolus eventualis / advertent recklessness): Form of intent, accepted by the Supreme Court in the accounting offence under art. 310 CP, in which the perpetrator does not directly seek the prohibited result but is aware of its high probability and, despite this, acts while accepting that possibility. See: Tax Accounting Offence →
Dolo falsario (specific intent to forge): Awareness and will that an altered or simulated document should produce effects as if genuine within legal transactions, when it is not in fact genuine; the subjective element required in document forgery offences. See: Document Forgery Offences Specialists →

Elemento de mendacidad (element of mendacity): Case-law requirement in the tax offence under which the mere non-payment of a tax liability is not enough for an offence to exist: a manoeuvre concealing or distorting the taxable base is additionally required. See: Tax Fraud Offences Specialists →
Encubrimiento (accessory after the fact / harbouring an offender): Offence protecting the Administration of Justice, punishing anyone who, with knowledge of an offence and without having taken part in it as principal or accomplice, subsequently intervenes to help those responsible benefit from its proceeds, conceals the effects or instruments of the offence, or helps them evade investigation. See: Encubrimiento (Harbouring an Offender) →
Engaño bastante (sufficient deception): Standard required in the offence of fraud (estafa) to assess whether the deception used was sufficient to cause the victim's error. It is not a single abstract standard: it is measured according to the actual recipient of the deception, since the same diligence cannot be demanded of an investment expert as of a person with little financial background. See: Commercial Fraud and Scams →
Ensañamiento (deliberate infliction of unnecessary suffering / cruelty): Circumstance elevating homicide to murder (art. 139.1.3ª CP) where two elements concur: an objective one (causing harm that is objectively unnecessary to achieve the result, with the victim conscious) and a subjective one (a deliberate will to increase the victim's suffering). See: Homicide and Murder Offences →
Entregas vigiladas (controlled deliveries): Drug-trafficking investigation technique, coordinated with foreign agencies, Europol and Eurojust, lawful when the Spanish police confine themselves to investigating acts already under way, without taking part in sending the substance or inducing its commission. See: Drug Trafficking Offences Specialists →
Especialidad (principle of speciality): Rule under which, once the surrender of a requested person has been granted, the requesting State may only try them for the specific acts that gave rise to the extradition request, unless the surrendered person expressly consents or the requested State subsequently authorises prosecution for other acts. See: Extradition Specialist →
Extradición activa (active extradition): Procedure in which the Spanish State itself requests another country to surrender a person charged, under investigation or convicted who is located outside its territory; of a mixed nature — judicial in its origin, governmental in its handling abroad — regulated by arts. 824 to 833 LECrim. See: Active Extradition →
Extradición pasiva (passive extradition): Procedure in which a third State addresses to Spain a request for the surrender of a person located on Spanish territory; it concentrates the greatest safeguards of the extradition system and is governed by Law 4/1985 on Passive Extradition, unless the European Arrest Warrant applies instead. See: The Passive Extradition Procedure →
Extraneus (an outsider to a special-duty offence): A person who, without possessing the special quality required by a genuine special offence (for example, director, public official or auditor), may nonetheless be held criminally liable as an inducer, necessary co-operator or accomplice to that offence. See: Falsification of Accounts and Auditors →

Grupo criminal (criminal group): A residual figure carrying lesser criminal weight than a criminal organisation (art. 570 ter CP): it does not require the same temporal stability or hierarchical structure as the latter, although it does require a degree of coordination among its members to commit offences. See: Terrorism and Criminal Organisation →

Jurisdicción extraterritorial (extraterritorial jurisdiction): The capacity of Spanish courts to hear offences committed outside national territory, such as boardings on the high seas, based on art. 23.4 LOPJ in conjunction with international treaties such as the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or the 1988 Vienna Convention. See: International Drug Trafficking →
Justicia universal (principle of universal jurisdiction): Principle, set out in art. 23.4 LOPJ following its reform by Organic Law 1/2014, allowing Spanish courts to hear certain offences of international scope (genocide, crimes against humanity, terrorism, piracy, drug trafficking, human trafficking, among others) regardless of where they were committed, within a regime that is already restricted following the reform. See: International Criminal Law →

Llave falsa (false key): A normative, not literal, concept under art. 239 CP: any material or mechanism used to open or close without causing breakage, which places on the same footing as traditional keys magnetic or punched cards, remote controls and any similar technological device. Also treated as false keys are genuine keys lost by their owner or obtained by a means constituting a criminal offence. See: Burglary and Theft Offences →

Malversación (embezzlement of public funds): Offence against Public Administration (arts. 432 to 435 CP) which, following the reform by Organic Law 14/2022, replaced the verb "to remove" with "to appropriate", requiring intent to profit and actual availability of the public funds by the perpetrator. See: Public Administration Offences Specialists →
Mixers (crypto-asset mixers): Services that break the traceability of cryptocurrency transactions by automatically distributing funds among random addresses. Their use is not unlawful per se, but constitutes a significant indicator in money-laundering investigations when combined with other elements. See: Money Laundering through Cryptocurrencies →
Mulero, o cibermulero, bancario (money mule): A person who provides their bank account to receive money of criminal origin, subsequently forwarding it on in exchange for a commission. Their criminal liability ranges from necessary co-operation in fraud, through receiving stolen goods, to — most commonly — money laundering through gross negligence where there was reasonable suspicion, though not certain knowledge, of the money's unlawful origin. See: Computer Fraud Offences →
Multirreincidencia, en hurto leve (multiple reoffending in petty theft): Circumstance introduced by Organic Law 9/2022 (art. 234.2 CP): if the perpetrator of a petty theft has been finally convicted of at least three offences of the same nature, with no cancelled prior convictions, the new petty theft ceases to be punished with a fine and instead carries the penalty for basic theft. See: Burglary and Theft Offences →

Nacionalidad española, como obstáculo a la extradición (Spanish nationality as a bar to extradition): Art. 3.1 of Law 4/1985 generally prevents the extradition of Spanish citizens, unless nationality was acquired fraudulently for the purpose of preventing surrender — fraud which, according to the Constitutional Court, must be present in the acquisition of nationality itself, not in its later use. See: Extradition Specialist →
No devolución (principle of non-refoulement): Principle, set out in art. 33.1 of the 1951 Geneva Convention, art. 5 of Law 12/2009 and art. 3 ECHR, which prohibits returning, expelling or extraditing a person to a country where their life or freedom would be endangered on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, or where there is a real risk of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment. See: Asylum and Refuge in Extradition Proceedings →
Notificación roja de Interpol (INTERPOL red notice): Request that INTERPOL's General Secretariat circulates, at the request of a member country's National Central Bureau, so that law-enforcement agencies worldwide locate and provisionally arrest a person pending their extradition or surrender, following a prior compliance review carried out by the General Secretariat itself. See: INTERPOL Red Notices →
Notoria importancia, en delitos de drogas (offence involving a notoriously large quantity of drugs): Aggravating circumstance of the drug-trafficking offence (art. 369 CP) relating to the quantity of substance seized. The Supreme Court's Plenary non-jurisdictional agreement of 19 October 2001 set as a reference five hundred daily consumption doses of each specific substance, based on a report from the National Institute of Toxicology. See: Substances Causing Serious Harm →

Orden Europea de Detención y Entrega (European Arrest Warrant, OEDE/EAW): Judicial cooperation instrument within the European Union that replaces the classic extradition procedure between Member States, structured around the principle of mutual recognition between judicial authorities (Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA and Law 23/2014, of 20 November). Its processing is shorter than classic extradition, the decision falls exclusively to the judicial authority — without final governmental intervention — and although its list of grounds for refusal is narrower, it retains the essential safeguards for the person sought. See: The Passive Extradition Procedure →
Orden Europea de Investigación (European Investigation Order): Judicial cooperation instrument of the European Union (Directive 2014/41/EU and Law 3/2018, of 11 June) that has largely displaced the classic letters rogatory for carrying out investigative measures between Member States. See: International Criminal Law →
Organización criminal (criminal organisation): A grouping of persons characterised, according to case law, by the cumulative presence of a plurality of persons, the use of suitable means, a previously agreed criminal plan, a distribution of roles, a degree of hierarchy, and persistent, lasting activity over time, with the intention of carrying out several distinguishable and varied criminal operations — which distinguishes it from mere co-offending in a single act. See: Aggravated Drug Trafficking by Organisation and Weapons →

Peligro abstracto y peligro concreto (abstract endangerment and concrete endangerment): Structural distinction between the four forms of the accounting offence under art. 310 CP: two of them (absolute failure to keep accounts and keeping double accounts) are offences of abstract endangerment, while the other two (failure to record transactions and fictitious entries) are offences of concrete endangerment, additionally subject to a quantitative threshold. See: Tax Accounting Offence →
Personalidad activa (principle of active personality): Principle, set out in art. 23.2 LOPJ, allowing Spanish jurisdiction to hear acts committed outside national territory when the person responsible is Spanish (or became a naturalised citizen after the act), requiring double criminality, a complaint or private prosecution, and the absence of prior prosecution abroad. See: International Criminal Law →
Personalidad pasiva, o principio real de protección (principle of passive personality / protective principle): Principle, set out in art. 23.3 LOPJ, granting jurisdiction to Spanish courts where essential interests of the State are harmed — treason, offences against the Crown, currency counterfeiting, attacks on Spanish authorities abroad, among others — without requiring double criminality. See: International Criminal Law →
Prevaricación administrativa (administrative malfeasance / knowingly unjust administrative decision): Offence (art. 404 CP) punishing the official or authority who knowingly issues an arbitrary decision aware of its unjustness. Mere illegality is not enough for the offence to exist: there must be a contradiction with the legal order so patent and gross that it admits no reasonable explanation. See: Public Administration Offences Specialists →
Prisión permanente revisable (reviewable permanent imprisonment): Penalty reserved by art. 140 CP for the most serious cases of murder: a victim under 16 years of age or particularly vulnerable, murder following an offence against sexual freedom, commission by a criminal organisation or group, or repeated or serial murders. Its suspension requires having served a minimum of 25 years of actual custody (up to 35 in the most serious cases), classification in the third penitentiary grade, and an individualised, favourable prognosis of reintegration. See: Homicide and Murder Offences →
Prueba indiciaria del blanqueo (circumstantial evidence of money laundering): The usual method of proving money laundering when there is no direct evidence: it is built from indicators such as disproportionate increases in wealth, links to unlawful activities or groups, unusual use of cash or "shell" companies, and the weakness or absence of lawful explanations for the origin of the funds, without the need for a prior conviction for the offence from which the assets derive. See: Money Laundering Offences →
Punto sin retorno, doctrina del (the "point of no return" doctrine): Case-law criterion used to distinguish misappropriation (apropiación indebida) or unfair (disloyal) administration from a mere breach of contract where the object is money or another fungible item: it requires that a point be reached at which a definitive intention not to deliver or return the item, or the impossibility of doing so, can be identified. See: Misappropriation Offence Lawyer →

Receptación (receiving stolen goods / handling): Offence (art. 298 CP) punishing anyone who, with intent to profit and knowledge that a property or socio-economic offence has been committed in which they did not take part, helps those responsible benefit from its proceeds, or receives, acquires or conceals them. It differs from money laundering in that the underlying offence must be a property or socio-economic one, and in that it seeks personal benefit from the proceeds rather than disguising their origin so as to reintroduce them into lawful economic circulation. See: Receptación (Receiving Stolen Goods) →
Reciprocidad (principle of reciprocity): Principle, set out in art. 13.3 of the Spanish Constitution and applicable on a supplementary basis under art. 1 of Law 4/1985, allowing extradition or cooperation with a State that has no bilateral or multilateral treaty with Spain, with the burden of proving that reciprocity falling on the requesting State. See: Extradition Specialist →
Regularización tributaria (tax regularisation): Statutory excuse under art. 305.4 CP exempting from criminal liability anyone who regularises their situation with the Tax Agency by acknowledging and paying the debt in full, including interest, before being notified of the start of an audit or before the Public Prosecutor's Office, the State Legal Service or the investigating judge direct proceedings against them. See: Tax Fraud Offences Specialists →
Relevancia casacional (cassational relevance): Requirement, in a criminal cassation appeal, to justify that the issue raised transcends the specific case; for convictions carrying sentences of under 5 years, the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court may declare the appeal inadmissible by a summarily reasoned order if that wider relevance is not adequately argued. See: Criminal Cassation Appeal Lawyers →
Requisitoria (judicial wanted order): Request issued by a Spanish judicial body for the location and production of a person who cannot be found, which at international level may be channelled through an INTERPOL red notice or diffusion, or through the European Arrest Warrant itself where the person concerned is in another EU Member State. See: Cybercrime and Crypto-asset Offences →

Territorialidad (principle of territoriality): Principle, set out in art. 8.1 of the Civil Code and art. 23.1 LOPJ, under which Spanish jurisdiction hears offences committed on Spanish territory, regardless of the nationality of the perpetrator. See: International Criminal Law →
Tratamiento médico, en delitos de lesiones (medical treatment, in injury offences): Element separating minor injury from the offence carrying a prison sentence (art. 147 CP): it must be objectively required to achieve recovery — it is not enough that it is dispensed subjectively — and go beyond initial medical attention as a separate medical act; mere monitoring or purely precautionary tests are excluded. See: Injuries, Threats and Coercion →
Triple test de la declaración de la víctima (three-part test for assessing victim testimony): Case-law criterion for assessing whether the victim's testimony alone can sustain a conviction for a sexual offence: absence of subjective incredibility (no improper motives), plausibility (corroborated by peripheral objective data), and persistence in the accusation (substantial consistency in the account, without requiring literal repetition). See: Sexual Assault and Abuse Offences →

Ubicuidad (principle of ubiquity): Principle established by the Supreme Court Second Chamber's Plenary non-jurisdictional agreement of 3 February 2005: the offence is deemed committed in every jurisdiction in which any element of the offence took place, which allows computer offences or crypto-asset fraud committed with connections across different countries to be investigated and tried in Spain. See: Cybercrime and Crypto-asset Offences →

Vaciamiento patrimonial (asset stripping): A form of unfair (disloyal) administration consisting of selling company assets to related persons or companies at a price manifestly below market value, to the detriment of the company and its shareholders or creditors. See: Fraudulent Disposal of Company Assets →