Complaint

A criminal complaint is the desire of a person that someone is prosecuted for a certain offense.

Regulated the criminal complaint in Germany is in § § 77 ff of the Criminal Code (StGB ) and § 158 Code of Criminal Procedure ( CCP).

Request offense, criminal offense

If an application offense of criminal complaint is a prerequisite for prosecution (eg trespassing and usually even with insult ). The contrast to this is the official offense, which is always prosecuted ex officio.

We distinguish between absolute and relative request offenses. In absolute request offenses is the public prosecution by the public prosecutor due to the legal provisions of the existence of an application dependent ( eg § 123 StGB: trespassing ), whereas it arrives in the relative on complaint to the special relationship with the legal interest or legal right carrier.

For other offenses, such as in the (simple) bodily injury ( § § 223, 230 StGB) the application requirement can be replaced by the affirmation of the particular public interest in prosecution by the public prosecutor. This is a discretionary decision that can not be verified by the court.

Some offenses are upon the addition of special circumstances to request offenses. Thus, theft, embezzlement, fraud and embezzlement are basically offenses prosecuted ex officio. However, they refer to low-value items or low-value financial benefits, so they are only as relative application trackable offenses ( § 248a, § 263, paragraph 4, § 266, paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code ). Going further restrictions on the aforementioned offenses when the act is committed by a member of the injured or there is a domestic union between the offender and injured party. Then the action can be followed as an absolute application offense regardless of the amount of loss under § 247 of the Criminal Code only upon request.

Conversely, the relative application tort § 303 b paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code ( computer sabotage in operational or administrative data processing ) to a criminal offense, when a particularly severe case pursuant to § 303 b para present 4 of the Criminal Code, because § 303 c of the Penal Code provides only for § 303 b paragraphs 1 to 3, an application requirement and the special public interest prior to the prosecution.

The prosecution will only be active in general, if an effective criminal complaint exists. Only if it is feared that important evidence may be lost to their previous classification begins with the investigation. However, the complaint must be submitted no later than at trial.

Legal nature

A criminal complaint is not a criterion, but only to proceeding ( law enforcement requirement ). The fact is, therefore, also be illegal if no complaint is made. In a practical sense, the prosecutor can determine only if a request is present and if factual indications that an offense had been committed exist. Requirement is the necessary initial suspicion. By proof prohibitions that arise regularly in information in the core area of ​​private life, the authority can not seek prosecution in a practical sense, even if it is not an application offense.

Eligibility

Eligible applicants is usually only one who is injured by the act, § 77 of the Criminal Code. In certain cases, the right of application is also hereditary. At the request of public officials can also provide the immediate superior (so-called insulting ). In incapacity or limited legal capacity of the injured, the legal representative (parent, guardian, caregiver ) is eligible to apply.

Form, period, redemption

Pursuant to § 158 paragraph 2 Code of Criminal Procedure of the application to the public prosecutor's office, the police or a court may be made ​​in writing or given to the prosecutor or the court for a transcript. In the Internet via online portals the police filed a criminal charges do not meet the requirement of written form. A criminal complaint condition is hostile. Basically, it is not relevant whether the Eligible explicitly the word " complaint " is used, as long as it can be seen clearly stated in its submissions that it requires the prosecution of a particular fact.

An act that is actionable only at the request not to be tried if the application holder if it fails to submit the application until the expiration of a period of three months. The period begins with the end of the day on which the application obtains guardians of the offense and the individual offender, knowledge ( § 77b StGB). A criminal complaint may be withdrawn until the final conclusion of the criminal proceedings. Thereafter, however, he can not be called again, § 77d of the Criminal Code.

An arrest due to a suspicion of an absolute duty of the applicant offense ( offense absolute application ) is possible even if no complaint exists. This also applies if an offense is traceable only with the authorization or request for prosecution, § 127 Section 3 Code of Criminal Procedure.

Demarcation

A criminal charge is only the communication to a law enforcement organ that one has knowledge of any facts which might constitute a criminal offense.

The application within the meaning of § 171 Code of Criminal Procedure is not a criminal complaint in this sense, since it can also be made by third parties, in accordance with § 77 of the Criminal Code are not eligible. § 171 Code of Criminal Procedure states that there must be one who has made ​​an application for a public prosecution, informed, when the prosecution is set. One speaks of the " complaints in the broader sense ."