9 Cases for the Legitimate Defense

Since the human person’s right to defend himself and his property is measured by justice, and entrenched by the principles of law, and all laws, so long as his defense is proportionate to the act within limits laid down by law, Considered a legitimate defense

This right is restricted by the legislature under several conditions, as stipulated in article 58 of Decree-Law No. 31 of 2021, on the Penal Code and Criminal Law, which stipulates that “No offense shall be committed in the exercise of the right of legitimate defense right, and the right to a legitimate defense shall be exercised if the following conditions are met:

Conditions that legalize the legitimate defense

1- If the defender faces or believes that he or she faces an immediate risk of an offense against himself, his or her money, or the same or other property, the defender or his or her belief is based on reasonable grounds.

2- The defender cannot resort to the public authorities to prevent the threat in a timely manner.

3- The defender has no other means to stop this risk.

4- The defense shall be necessary for the offense of the assault to be proportionate. “

It is in this spirit that we clarify cases in which legitimate defense is permitted:

Case No. 1: If the defender is in immediate danger of a crime against himself:

Such a risk should be immediate to the same defender, such as being beaten or abused. The law allowed him to pay such an infringement, but by the same means, it was not reasonable for a person to attack the defender by simply beating him and for the defender to shoot him, in this case, it is an infringement of the right to legitimate defense.

Case No. 2: If the defender is in immediate danger of a crime against the defender’s property:

In an attempt to steal or seize his money, he has the right to a legitimate defense in order to pay for the danger to his money and the supply of his money.

Case No. 3: If the defender is in immediate danger of a crime against the same person:

This is the case when a person sees a person who assaults another person who intervenes in this case and pushes the infringement of the same person and makes an act that is not punishable because in a case of legitimate defense In order to eliminate the negativity now afflicting some societies, the legislature may have come true in this legislation. Their vision of encroachment before them and nonetheless non-intervention, although its intervention could save human life.

Case No. 4: If the defender is in immediate danger of a crime against another’s property:

This situation is achieved at a time when the property of others is stolen. If the defender intervenes to provide for another’s the property and commits an act punishable by law, this act is a case of legitimate defense provided for by law.

Such cases require a legitimate defense that the defense’s act does not exceed the act of aggression and that the act is proportionate between the encroachment and the defense.

The law also requires that the act be directed at the aggressor himself. No one who assaults him may direct his defense to another or an animal who attacks him or her may direct the act of defense to his or her owner.

Article 59 of the same Act stipulates that “the right to a legitimate defense shall not intentionally permit murder unless it is intended to pay the following:

Case No. 5: If the act fears death or severe injury, must such fear has reasonable grounds:

This is shown in a situation where the act of aggression is of such gravity that it can amount to the loss of the victim’s soul and not only the occurrence of injury. If the victim is about to die, the act of manslaughter shall be paid for by the victim. This act shall be within the legal defense so long as the aggressor is persistent in assaulting the victim’s soul.

Case No. 6: To harass a female by force or indecent assault.

In the event of a female without her consent or the indecent assault of a person by force, the female or violator forcibly killed the aggressor and provided them with their offer and honor.

Case No. 7: Case of human abduction:

In this case, the extent to which the abducted person is intimidated and whose punishment is unknown in the case of abduction is killed, hanged, or dumped in the water is evident. The act of abduction amounts to murder in order to eliminate the abduction or self-defense in order not to commit the crime is also part of the legitimate defense.

Case No. 8: Fire crimes, damage or theft:

Given the gravity of these crimes and what they can lead to, the law permits murder to prevent them from being committed. Anyone who intentionally sets fire to another home, sets fire to another person or destroys another person’s property, does not stop, continues to aggression, and anyone who steals another by coercion threatens a weapon.

Case No. 9: Condition of overnight admission to a house or an attachment:

At night, he entered a house or one of his attachés to commit a crime and intimidate the security of persons, and the terror of such entry in the same dwellers of the house, if the action arose out of deliberate killing in order to defend the act, he would be entitled to legitimate defense.

According to the above, in the first four cases, the law required proportionality between the act of assault and the act of defense. and the last five were excluded from this proportionality and even deliberately permitted to kill if the legitimate defense against one of the last five acts so long as the act of aggression reached the gravity of the manner in which it could be stopped only by murder because of its seriousness as a female rape and had to induce it to kill the perpetrator.

After this simple presentation, the trial court has the discretion in each of these cases whether or not it is a case of legitimate defense and assesses the extent to which the act of defense is necessary in accordance with the case of the case and each incident as it occurred and the aggression, defense, and applicability of article 58 of the Federal Penal Code No. 31 of 2021 to the incident.