Witnesses may be prosecuted for perjury. Perjury, different people are suspected of different crimes. If it is serious, they can be investigated for criminal responsibility, and if they are found, they will be prosecuted. The so-called crime of perjury means that the actor deliberately makes false proof, appraisal, recording and translation. To constitute this crime, the perjury of the actor must occur in the process of criminal proceedings, that is, in the whole process of investigation, prosecution and trial. No matter whether the perpetrator has made a false certificate, a false appraisal, a false record or a false translation, as long as one of the acts is carried out, it is enough to establish this crime.
legal ground
According to the provisions of Article 111th of the Civil Procedure Law, the people's court may impose a fine or detain a litigant participant or any other person for any of the following acts according to the seriousness of the case; If the case constitutes a crime, criminal responsibility shall be investigated according to law:
(1) Forging or destroying important evidence, which hinders the people's court from hearing a case;
(2) using violence, threats or bribes to prevent witnesses from testifying or instigating, bribing or coercing others to commit perjury;
(3) Hiding, transferring, selling off or destroying the property that has been sealed up or detained, or transferring the property that has been counted and ordered to be kept;
(4) Insulting, slandering, framing, beating or retaliating against judicial personnel, participants in litigation, witnesses, translators, expert witnesses, inspectors and assisting executors;
(5) Obstructing judicial personnel from performing their duties by violence, threat or other means;
(6) Refusing to perform a legally effective judgment or ruling of the people's court.
In the following six situations, criminal responsibility shall be investigated for perjury.
(1) Perjury is enough to make others suffer criminal punishment or heavy sentence for misdemeanor.
(2) Perjury is enough to make criminals evade criminal punishment or give a light sentence for a felony.
(3) Perjury causes injustice, falsehood or misjudgment.
(4) State functionaries take advantage of their positions to destroy criminal evidence or create perjury for economic criminals.
(five) because of perjury caused others to commit suicide or mental disorders.
(six) perjury caused other serious consequences.
Matters needing attention that should not be recognized as perjury
Irresponsible or negligent in the work of appraisers, recorders and translators, or providing incorrect appraisal, recording and translation due to limited professional level; And people who know little about the real situation of the case, have inaccurate knowledge, or provide hearsay testimony, thus providing false proof, because they do not have the subjective intention of perjury, do not constitute perjury. Although there is perjury, the circumstances are obviously minor and the harm is not great, so it should not be considered as a crime.
Generally speaking, in civil dispute cases, if the parties commit perjury, it will constitute obstruction of litigation, and the parties can be fined or detained. Compared with civil disputes, if perjury is committed in criminal proceedings, the legal liability will be very serious, and the defendant or plaintiff will sometimes get completely different consequences because of the testimony of witnesses. Therefore, those who make false testimony in criminal proceedings will face imprisonment of less than three years after being found.