perjury
A perjury is a false oath in court or possibly other bodies that are authorized by law to take oaths. The Duden defines perjury as "oath with knowingly, willfully something untrue invoked is".
etymology
The term perjury is derived from Old High German , whereby “mine” is not to be understood as a possessive pronoun , but rather means “false, fraudulent”. Perjury comes from the althd. perjury of the 8th and 9th centuries ( mhd. meinit , Asächs . mēnēð , mnd. mēnēt , mnl. meinet , nl. meined , aengl . mānāþ , anord. meiniðr , Swedish. mened ). The first part of the word represents the nominal stem from germ. * Maina- 'false', which was used as an adjective in Old High German for 'false, fraudulent' - originally also for 'mixed up, confused'. The Old High German noun mein denoted in the 8th century ' sacrilege , injustice, misdeed', in Old Saxon mēn also 'outrage, sin ' and in Old English mān ' crime '. A word community constitutes the word part to public as well as by subsequent detail displacement avoid , miss and the prefix mis- or abuse .
Germany
Perjury is a testimony offense and in German criminal law refers to the false swearing in front of a court or another authority responsible for taking oaths ( Section 154 of the Criminal Code ). The administration of justice is a protected legal interest .
Perjury is a crime (see Section 12 (1) StGB ) that is punishable by imprisonment from one to fifteen years. In less serious cases, the sentence is imprisonment from six months to five years. A less serious case can exist, for example, if the person swearing should not have been sworn in. This is the case, for example, if the person swearing is not capable of taking an oath (cf. § 60 StPO ).
In contrast to the previous legal situation and practice, the swearing-in of witnesses is no longer the rule, but the exception, and is at the discretion of the court ( § 59 StPO , § 391 ZPO ).
The attempt at perjury does not begin with making false statements, but with swearing the formula of the oath . If the witness who made a false testimony corrects it before taking the oath completely, then he has resigned from the attempt at perjury. There then remains only the criminal liability for false, unofficial testimony , which is completed at the latest when the swearing-in is ordered.
In the Middle Ages, perjury was also a violation of the sworn waiver .
Austria
Anyone who takes a false testimony under oath or confirms it with an oath in court in accordance with Section 288 (2) of the Criminal Code or otherwise falsely swears an oath provided for in the law in court is punished with imprisonment from six months to five years.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Perjury , in: duden.de , accessed on October 7, 2017.
- ^ Perjury in the Etymological Dictionary by Wolfgang Pfeifer ; provided by the digital dictionary of the German language , accessed on October 7, 2017.
