Unified Text of the Penal Code adopted by Law No. 14 of May 18, 2007, with modifications by Law No. 26 of May 21, 2008

LAW No. 14 Of May 18, 2007 Adopting the Penal Code

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DECREES:

Sole Article. The Penal Code of the Republic of Panama is adopted, the text of which is as follows:

BOOK ONE CRIMINAL LAW IN GENERAL Preliminary Title Chapter I Basic Postulates

Article 1. This Code is founded on respect for human dignity.

Article 2. This Code only criminalizes those conducts and behaviors whose incrimination is indispensable for the protection of the legal goods safeguarded and the significant values of society, and in accordance with the State's criminal policy.

Article 3. Criminal legislation should only intervene when it is not possible to use other mechanisms of social control. The principle of minimal application is instituted.

Article 4. A person can only be punished for the commission of an unlawful act, provided that the conduct has been previously described by criminal law.

Article 5. The norms and postulates on human rights contained in the Political Constitution and in the international conventions in force in the Republic of Panama are an integral part of this Code. Furthermore, they are minimums and not exclusive of others that affect fundamental rights and the dignity of the person.

Article 6. The imposition of penalties and security measures shall respond to the basic postulates enshrined in this Code and to the principles of necessity, proportionality, and reasonableness.

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Article 7. The penalty shall fulfill the functions of general prevention, just retribution, special prevention, social reintegration, and protection of the sentenced person.

Article 8. Security measures shall only be applied to those who are not criminally responsible. Security measures are founded on the protection, cure, guardianship, and rehabilitation of the person.

Chapter II Criminal Guarantees

Article 9. No one may be prosecuted or punished for an act not expressly described as a crime by law at the time of its commission, nor subjected to security measures not provided for by law.

Article 10. The imposition of a criminal sanction corresponds exclusively to competent courts, through a prior legal process, conducted according to the constitutional and legal formalities in force. No criminal sanction may be imposed by an extraordinary jurisdiction or one created ad hoc after the punishable act, nor in violation of the proper forms of the trial.

Article 11. Proceedings conducted in contravention of the provisions of the two preceding articles are null, and those who acted in them as judges or investigative officials shall be responsible, in any case, civilly and criminally, for the damages or losses resulting from the illegal process.

Article 12. Criminal law shall define the punishable act unequivocally. When a punishable act requires that a norm of equal or lower hierarchy complement it, the existence of that complementary legal norm is necessary.

Article 13. For a conduct to be considered a crime, it must be typical, unlawful, and culpable.

Article 14. The law favorable to the accused shall apply retroactively. This principle also governs those sanctioned even if there is a final judgment, provided they have not fully served the penalty. The recognition of this guarantee shall be made ex officio or at the request of a party.

Article 15. When applying criminal law to an act, it may not be considered more than once for the imposition of another sanction. In the case of ideal or real concurrence of the crime, the corresponding norms established in this Code shall be applied. When several criminal laws or provisions of this Code sanction the same act, the special provision shall prevail over the general one. This guarantee also governs cases judged abroad.

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Article 16. No act shall be considered a crime based on analogy. Extensive interpretation and analogical application are only possible when they benefit the accused.

Title I Application of Criminal Law Chapter I Validity of Criminal Law in Time

Article 17. Crimes are punished according to the law in force at the time of the action or omission, regardless of when the result occurs. The case provided for in Article 14 of this Code is saved. When the law refers to the crime, it includes both the consummated modality and the attempt.

Chapter II Application of Criminal Law in Space

Article 18. Criminal law shall apply to punishable acts committed in national territory and other places subject to the State's jurisdiction, except for the exceptions established in the conventions and international norms in force in the Republic of Panama. For the purposes of criminal law, the territory of the Republic constitutes the continental and insular area, territorial waters, continental shelf, subsurface, and the airspace covering them. It also constitutes Panamanian ships and aircraft and anything that, according to International Law norms, responds to that concept.

Article 19. Panamanian criminal law is applicable, even if committed abroad, to crimes against Humanity, against the Legal Personality of the State, against Public Health, against the National Economy, and against Public Administration, as well as to crimes of forced disappearance of persons, trafficking in persons, and forgery of Panamanian public credit documents, official documents, seals, and stamps, of Panamanian currency, and other legal tender currencies in the country, provided that, in the latter case, they have been introduced or intended to be introduced into national territory.

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Article 20. Panamanian criminal law shall also apply to crimes committed abroad when:

1. They produce or should produce their results in Panamanian territory.
2. They are committed to the detriment of a Panamanian or their rights.
3. They are committed by diplomatic agents, officials, or Panamanian employees who have not been judged in the place of their commission due to diplomatic immunity reasons.
4. A national authority has denied the extradition of a Panamanian or a foreigner.

Article 21. Regardless of the provisions in force in the place of the commission of the crime and the nationality of the accused, Panamanian criminal law shall apply to those who commit punishable acts provided for in international treaties in force in the Republic of Panama, provided that these grant them territorial competence.

Chapter III Application of Criminal Law to Persons

Article 22. Panamanian criminal law shall apply without distinction of persons, with the exception of:

1. Heads of foreign State.
2. Diplomatic agents of other States and other persons who enjoy immunity, according to the international conventions in force in the Republic of Panama.
3. Cases provided for in the Political Constitution and laws. The exceptions established in this article shall not apply when it comes to the crimes contemplated in Title XV of Book Two of this Code, and the crime of forced disappearance of persons.

Article 23. The commission of a punishable act by a public servant who enjoys functional prerogatives does not prevent the competent authority, after complying with legal formalities, from applying the sanctions provided for in criminal law.

Title II Punishable Acts and Criminally Responsible Persons Chapter I Punishable Acts

Article 24. Crimes are conducts typified as such in this Code or in other laws that establish penal types.

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Chapter II Action

Article 25. Crimes may be committed by commission or omission. There is a crime by commission when the agent, personally or using another person, performs the conduct described in the penal norm, and there is a crime by omission when the subject fails to comply with the mandate provided in the norm. When this Code incriminates an act due to a prohibited result, it is also committed by whoever has the legal duty to avoid it and did not avoid it when they could have.

Chapter III Intent, Negligence, and Their Exceptions

Article 26. For a conduct to be considered a crime, it must be committed with intent, except for cases of negligence provided for by this Code. Causality, by itself, is not sufficient for the legal imputation of the result.

Article 27. One acts with intent who wants the result of the legally described act, and who accepts it in the case of representing it as possible.

Article 28. One acts with negligence who performs the legally described act due to non-observance of the objective duty of care incumbent upon them according to the circumstances and personal conditions or, in the case of representing it as possible, acts confident in being able to avoid it. When this Code incriminates an act due to a prohibited result, it is also committed by whoever has the legal duty to avoid it and did not avoid it when they could have.

Article 29. There is a fortuitous case or force majeure when the act is the product of an action or omission unforeseeable and impossible to avoid or evade by the person. In these cases, there is no crime.

Article 30. One does not commit a crime who acts with the erroneous and invincible conviction that their action or omission does not contribute to any of the necessary requirements for the act to correspond to its legal description.

Chapter IV Causes of Justification

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Article 31. One does not commit a crime who acts in the legitimate exercise of a right or in compliance with a legal duty.

Article 32. One does not commit a crime who acts in self-defense of their person, their rights, or a third party or their property, provided that the circumstances so require. Defense is legitimate when the following conditions concur:

1. Existence of an unjust, actual, or imminent aggression from which the person is or could be affected by the act;
2. Use of a rational means to prevent or repel the aggression; and
3. Lack of sufficient provocation by the defender or the one being defended. It is presumed that one acts in self-defense who reasonably repels the one who, without their consent, has entered their residence, dwelling, house, or room.

Article 33. One acts in a state of necessity who, in the face of a situation of danger, to avoid an evil to themselves or a third party, injures the legal good of another, provided that the following conditions concur:

1. That the danger is grave, actual, or imminent;
2. That it is not avoidable in any other way;
3. That the danger was not voluntarily caused by the agent or by the person being protected;
4. That the agent does not have the legal duty to face the risk; and
5. That the evil produced is less grave than the one avoided.

Article 34. In the cases contemplated in this Chapter, when the responsible person exceeds the limits established by law or by necessity, they shall be sanctioned with a penalty that is not less than one-sixth nor exceed half of that indicated for the punishable act.

Chapter V Criminal Responsibility

Article 35. For a defendant to be declared guilty of an act provided as punishable in the law, it is necessary that they be criminally responsible. The criminal responsibility of the defendant is presumed.

Article 36. One is not criminally responsible who, at the time of committing the punishable act, does not have the capacity to understand its unlawfulness or, in case of understanding it, to self-determine according to that understanding.

Article 37. If the state of mental perturbation of the accused at the time of the punishable act stems from drunkenness, the following rules shall be followed:

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1. If the state of mental perturbation of the accused at the time of perpetrating the punishable act stems from fortuitous drunkenness, they shall be declared not criminally responsible if the drunkenness is total.
2. If the agent got drunk with the design of committing a punishable act or procuring an excuse, the sanction shall be aggravated, according to the norms of this Code. Intoxicated persons by drugs or stupefactors of any kind who commit a punishable act shall be declared criminally responsible or not criminally responsible according to the rules given for the drunkard.

Article 38. One acts with diminished criminal responsibility who, at the time of the action or omission, does not possess complete capacity to understand the illicit character of the act.

Chapter VI Exemptions from Culpability

Article 39. One is not culpable who, knowing the conditions or circumstances of the act that integrate the conduct, due to an invincible error, ignores its unlawfulness.

Article 40. One is not culpable who acts by virtue of an order emanating from a competent authority to issue it, vested with the corresponding legal formalities, that the agent is obliged to comply with and that does not have the character of an evident punishable infringement. Members of the Public Force are excepted when they are on duty, in which case responsibility falls solely on the hierarchical superior who issued the order. This exception is not applicable when it comes to crimes against Humanity or the crime of forced disappearance of persons.

Article 41. One is not culpable who performs a punishable act not provoked by the agent, to prevent an actual and imminent evil to a legal good of one's own or another, not avoidable in any other way, provided that it is equal or superior to the legal good injured.

Article 42. One is not culpable who acts under one of the following circumstances:

1. By coercion or serious, insurmountable, actual, or imminent threat exerted by a third party.
2. Driven by insurmountable fear, serious, real, and imminent of a greater or equal evil to the one caused.
3. Erroneously convinced that they are protected by a cause of justification.

Chapter VII Authorship and Participation

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Article 43. One is an author who performs, personally or through an intermediary, the conduct described in the penal type.

Article 44. One is a primary accomplice who takes part in the execution of the punishable act or provides the author with help without which the crime could not have been committed.

Article 45. One is a secondary accomplice:

1. Who helps, in any other way, the author or authors in the realization of the punishable act; or
2. Who, in any other way, provides help or hides the product of the crime, in compliance with a promise made prior to its execution.

Article 46. If the punishable act were more serious than what the accomplice or accomplices intended to commit, only those who would have accepted it as a probable consequence of the action undertaken shall be liable.

Article 47. One is an instigator who determines another or others to commit a crime.

Chapter VIII Imperfect Form of Realization of the Crime

Article 48. There is an attempt when the execution of the crime is initiated through acts suitable for its consummation, but this does not occur due to causes unrelated to the agent's will.

Article 49. If the agent voluntarily desists from the execution of the crime or prevents the result from occurring, they shall only respond criminally if the acts performed constitute another crime.

Title III Penalties Chapter I Types of Penalties

Article 50. The penalties established by this Code are:

1. Principal: a) Imprisonment. b) Weekend arrest. c) Fine-days.

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2. Substitute: a) House arrest. b) Community service.

3. Accessory: a) Fine. b) Ineligibility to hold public office. c) Ineligibility to exercise a certain profession, trade, industry, or commerce. d) Confiscation. e) Prohibition to carry weapons. f) Suspension of driving license. g) Suspension of parental authority and the exercise of guardianship.

Article 51. When a legal person is used or created to commit a crime, provided it is benefited by it, any of the following sanctions shall be applied to it:

1. Cancellation or suspension of the license or registration for a term not exceeding five years.
2. A fine not less than five thousand balboas (B/.5,000.00) nor more than double the damage or patrimonial benefit.
3. Total or partial loss of fiscal benefits.
4. Ineligibility to contract with the State, directly or indirectly, for a term not exceeding five years, which shall be imposed together with any of the above.
5. Dissolution of the society.

Chapter II Principal Penalties and Their Execution

Article 52. The penalty of imprisonment consists of the temporary deprivation of personal liberty and shall be served in a penitentiary center of the jurisdiction of the Panamanian State, except in the cases provided for in international conventions approved by Panama that allow serving the sanction in another country. It may also be served in the places determined by the competent Judge or Magistrate as provided in this Code. The penalty of imprisonment imposed for a single act may last from six months to thirty years. In the case of concurrence of crimes, the maximum penalty of imprisonment may not exceed thirty-five years.

Article 53. The time spent in provisional detention in a penitentiary center or in the home, room, or health establishment shall be counted as part of the penalty served.

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Article 54. Weekend arrest consists of the internment of the sentenced person in a penitentiary center for a period of forty-eight hours, which shall be served according to the circumstances of each case, between six in the evening on Friday and six in the morning on the following Monday. The arrest shall have a minimum of twelve and a maximum of two hundred weekends for the commission of a single crime.

Article 55. The Judge may change the weekend arrest days designated to other days of the week when the employment, occupation, or trade of the sentenced person so requires, and may also decrease the number of hours that the weekend arrest lasts. The remaining hours shall be compensated in the following week, as appropriate.

Article 56. Causes of non-compliance that authorize the Compliance Judge to convert the penalty of weekend arrest to a penalty of imprisonment are the following:

1. The infringement of the norms contained in the execution regulations.
2. The commission of another crime.
3. Unjustified absences and tardiness, as provided by the execution regulations.

Article 57. The Compliance Judge may authorize, as alternative measures to the fulfillment of the penalty of deprivation of liberty, the consensual participation of the sentenced person in a study or work program inside or outside the penal center, attending to the recommendations of the Penitentiary Technical Board and the behavior of the person. The activities referred to in the preceding paragraph are the following:

1. Education with academic benefit, at different levels of teaching.
2. Work in unpaid community labor.
3. Participation as an instructor in literacy, education, training, or qualification courses, which shall be counted as one day of work for every eight hours worked.

Article 58. The Compliance Judge, after evaluation by the Penitentiary Technical Board, shall additionally recognize in favor of the sentenced person one day of imprisonment for every two days of work, study, or participation as an instructor. When it comes to crimes sanctioned with imprisonment penalties greater than five years, this benefit may only be applied to those who have served one-third of the penalty.

Article 59. The penalty of fine-days consists of the obligation to pay the State a sum of money, which shall be determined according to the economic situation of the accused, taking into account their wealth, income, means of subsistence, level of expenses, or other duly accredited elements of judgment.

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When the sentenced person lives from the product of their work, the fine-day may not exceed fifty percent (50%) of their daily income. The minimum is fifty fine-days and the maximum is five hundred fine-days. Once the economic situation of the sanctioned person is proven, a maximum term of twelve months may be set for the payment of the imposed sanction.

Article 60. The Compliance Judge, at the request of the sanctioned person, may authorize them to amortize the payment of the imposed penalty through free remunerated work, but the contribution shall not be less than fifty percent (50%) of the income received.

Article 61. If the sanctioned person does not pay the principal penalty of fine-days, these shall be converted into the equivalent penalty of imprisonment. The paid fine-days and the days of imprisonment served shall be deducted. When the penalty of imprisonment and the penalty of fine-days are imposed jointly, and the latter is not complied with, it shall be added to the imposed penalty of imprisonment. In the case that the replacement of the penalty of imprisonment by fine-days is not complied with, the sanctioned person shall fully serve the penalty of imprisonment.

Article 62. In the case of non-compliance with penalties, the Compliance Judge shall apply the following rules:

1. One day of imprisonment for each fine-day.
2. One day of imprisonment for one hundred balboas (B/.100.00) of fine.
3. One weekend arrest for two days of imprisonment.
4. One day of imprisonment for one day of house arrest.
5. One day of imprisonment for one day of community service.
6. One weekend arrest for two days of community service.
7. One fine-day for one day of community service.

Chapter III Substitute Penalties

Article 63. House arrest consists of the temporary deprivation of liberty and shall be served in the home or residence of the accused or in any other place determined by the Knowledge Judge.

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To determine the place where house arrest shall be served, the Compliance Judge shall take into consideration the security of the victim and the location of the house or room where it will be served; furthermore, they shall designate the person, sufficiently identified, who shall commit to guaranteeing the fulfillment of the obligations imposed on the sanctioned person.

Article 64. House arrest shall prevent the sentenced person from leaving the previously established place; nevertheless, with prior authorization from the Compliance Judge, they may attend their work, the doctor, a hospital or educational center, or attend to any other duly proven circumstance. House arrest shall be revoked if the beneficiary infringes the obligations of the prison. In this case, they shall serve the originally imposed penalty.

Article 65. Community service may be applied by the Knowledge Judge or by the Compliance Judge to someone who has been convicted or is serving a penalty that does not exceed five years of imprisonment. In the latter case, the approval of the Penitentiary Technical Board is necessary. All community service requires the written consent of the beneficiary and shall only be carried out in public health or educational institutions or in cases of calamities. One day of imprisonment shall be counted in favor of the sentenced person for every five days of work performed.

Article 66. For the application of what is established in the preceding article, the competent authority shall ensure the fulfillment of the following conditions:

1. The execution shall develop under

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