Perjury

A perjury is a false oath before a court or other possible locations that are authorized by law to administer oaths.

In the Middle Ages the perjury swearing was cut out his tongue as a mirror punishment for swearing or raised hand cut off. The term perjury is derived from the Old High German, which is not to be "my" as a possessive pronoun, but " wrong " means ( Meyn OHG: false, see Engl. Mean).

Germany

A perjury is in German criminal law, the false swearing before a court or other competent authority to administer oaths ( § 154 StGB). Protected legal interest is the administration of justice.

Perjury is a crime (cf. § 12 Section 1 of the Criminal Code), punishable by imprisonment of one to fifteen years. In less serious cases the punishment shall be imprisonment from six months to five years. A less serious case may be, for example, if the Swearing should not have been sworn. This is for instance be the case if the person swearing affidavit not capable (cf. § 60 Code of Criminal Procedure ).

In contrast to the previous legal situation is the swearing of witnesses no longer the rule but the exception, and is at the discretion of the court ( § 59 Code of Criminal Procedure, § 391 ZPO).

The attempt of perjury does not begin with the false statement, but with the swearing of the oath. If the witness who has made a false statement, nor corrected this prior to taking the oath, he has not committed an offense.

Austria

He who makes in court pursuant to § 288 paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code a false statement of evidence under oath or affirmed with an oath or some other measures provided for in the laws oath in court swears falsely shall be punished with imprisonment from six months to five years.