Minor threats in Spain: Concepts and forms of offences

The crime of threats consists of the action or expression that anticipates the intention of harming or endangering another person. It's typified and regulated in the Spanish Penal Code in articles 169 to 171.

Crime of threats

The crime of threats consists of expressing the intention to cause future injury to an individual or their relatives.

The Penal Code states that anybody who threatens to cause harm to a different person, their family and other persons with whom the latter is intimately linked may be committing the crime of threats.

Anybody who threatens someone else with harming them, their family and other persons with whom they're intimately linked, which constitutes crimes of homicide, injury, abortion, against freedom, torture and against moral integrity, sexual freedom, privacy, honour, property and socio-economic order, will be punished:

1. A prison sentence of anyone to five years, if the threat has been created by demanding a sum of money or imposing some other condition, even if it's not unlawful, and the guilty party has achieved their aim. If he has not succeeded, the penalty shall be imprisonment for a term of 6 months to three years.

The penalties set out in the previous paragraph will be increased by half if the threats are created in writing, by telephone or in the slightest of communication or reproduction, or for real or supposed entities or groups.

2. With a prison sentence of between half a year and 2 yrs when the threat wasn't conditional.

Article 169 of the Criminal Code

However, a crime is not necessarily committed when threatening another person. The Penal Code specifies certain requirements for threats to become a criminal offence or not.

Requirements for a threat to become a criminal offence

This really is one of the very most subjective of all the offences included in the Criminal Code.

Anyone can understand as a threat something which another individual might not do; therefore, it is very important to possess reliable proof what happened (documents, witnesses, recordings, etc.) to be able to have the ability to clarify before the judge what every person understands as a risk and under what circumstances it has occurred. As well as this, there has to be certain requirements within the threat itself for the act to be understood as a crime.


Along with carrying out the action of threatening, the alleged perpetrator must carry out the threats with actions that constitute a crime.

In other words, it's inadequate merely to threaten to commit the offence. It can also be necessary that the action that's designed to cause harm to some other, that action with which the threat is created, is classified as a criminal offence.

An offense of threats is committed when, as well as the threat, this threat constitutes a crime of: homicide, injury, abortion, against freedom, torture, against moral integrity, against sexual freedom, intimacy, honour, patrimony or socio-economic order.

Example: whenever a person says to some other person "I'm likely to kill you!", he is threatening and, in addition, the actual fact of killing constitutes a crime of homicide, so we are working with a crime of threats.

Example: each time a person says to some other person "I'm not speaking with you anymore, don't ever talk in my experience again!", this threat does not constitute a crime and therefore can not be classified as an intimidating offence.

Types of threatening offences and penalties

● Threats produced by demanding an amount or imposing one or more conditions, even though these conditions are not an offence. Example: "I'll kill you if you don't pay me your son's debt" ;.
○ Once the offender achieves his objective: 1 to 5 years imprisonment.
○ If the offender doesn't achieve his objective: 6 months to 3 years imprisonment.

● Threat produced in a non-conditional manner. Example: "I will kill you and your loved ones!
○ Sentence of 6 months to 2 years imprisonment.

● Threats made towards populations, ethnic, cultural or religious groups, a collective or any other band of persons:
○ Penalties higher in degree than those foreseen above.

● If the threats publicly necessitate the commission of terrorist acts:
○ Penalty of 6 months to 3 years imprisonment.

● Threatening with an evil that does not constitute danger when they're serious and with the objective assessment of the reality:
○ Penalty of 3 months to 1 year imprisonment or a fine of 6 to 24 months.

● If the offender achieves his objective: The penalty shall be imposed in top of the half the sentence.

● When the threat includes receiving an incentive as a swap for not publishing or disseminating details about the private life or family relations of another:

● Once the offender achieves his objective: Penalty of 2 to 4 years imprisonment.

If the offender does not succeed: 4 months to 2 years imprisonment.
If a threat is made to report an offense:

The prosecutor might not charge the offence if the offence is punishable by 2 years' imprisonment or less.

For more details check out denunciar por insultos (report insults).