Criminal law is divided into procedural and substantive law. Criminal law refers to the area of law that defines the conditions under which a State imposes criminal sanctions, i.e. penalties and security measures.

Article 14 of the Criminal Code contains the definition of crime. A crime is therefore an act or omission which is unjust and imputable to its perpetrator and punishable by law. By “unjust” we mean an act or omission which is contrary to law. By the term “imputable” to its perpetrator we mean the act or omission, which was committed with intent or negligence.

An act is committed fraudulently either when the perpetrator wants/desires the production of the circumstances which, according to the law, constitute the meaning of a criminal act or when the perpetrator knows that his act may produce these circumstances and accepts it . An act is committed by negligence when the offender, through lack of the care which he ought to have taken in the circumstances and could have taken, either did not foresee the criminal result (unconscious negligence) or foresaw it as possible but believed that it would not occur (conscious negligence).

Substantive criminal law is the set of rules under which an act or omission is criminalised. It also defines when and what the appropriate criminal sanction is, which is imposed on the offender either as a penalty or as a security measure.

In this respect, procedural criminal law provides for the procedure for applying the rules of substantive criminal law, as well as the competence of the statutory bodies of the State.

The law firm of Marianthi Petra undertakes:

• The handling of drug cases, theft, fraud and late appeals
• The legal support of clients in all stages of criminal proceedings
• The drafting and filing of criminal complaints, indictments, lawsuit reports
• Drafting and submitting pleadings and applications
• Studying and preparing criminal files
• Representation before the competent prosecuting and investigating authorities, judicial councils and courts of all jurisdictions
• The suspension and deferment of the execution of a sentence
• The annulment of a decision and of the proceedings
• The commingling, commutation and extinction of sentences