Fight

Legal definiton 

Section 158 of the Criminal Code:

(1) Whoever intentionally endangers another person's life or health by participating in a fight shall be punished by imprisonment for up to one year.

(2) The perpetrator shall be punished by imprisonment for six months to five years or by a financial penalty if, during the act mentioned in paragraph 1, serious bodily harm is inflicted on another person.

(3) The perpetrator shall be punished by imprisonment for two to eight years if, during the act mentioned in paragraph 1, death is caused to another person. 

Subjective aspect - intent

Fight is an intentional criminal offence. A criminal offence is committed intentionally if the perpetrator wanted to violate or endanger a legally protected interest in the manner specified by the Criminal Code (direct intent), or if the perpetrator knew that his actions could result in such a violation or endangerment and accepted the possibility of it occurring (indirect intent).

If the act can be deemed as mere negligence rather than intent, it does not constitute the described criminal offence. 

Defense

In crimes against life and health, even seemingly minor details can have a fundamental impact on the outcome of the criminal proceedings. This not only affects whether the person will be convicted or acquitted but also which specific crime may be attributed to their actions.

In the context of bodily harm, particularly serious bodily harm, one of the fundamental questions is to assess the outcome in the specific case. This means determining whether it constitutes bodily harm under Section 122 (1) of the Criminal Code or whether it amounts to grievous bodily harm under Section 122 (2) of the Criminal Code. It is also important to consider the perpetrator's intent or negligence in the matter.

The criminal offense of fight is relatively specific compared to others. A fight is defined as mutual aggression involving at least three people, where all participants are simultaneously attackers, and the violence is so intense that it endangers their lives or health. The perpetrators' intent must encompass not only participation in the fight but also the endangerment of another person's life or health. Therefore, cases where one person is attacked by multiple attackers and is merely defending against their assault cannot be considered a fight. Additionally, a person who intervenes in an attempt to stop the fight to prevent injury to the attackers is not considered a participant in the fight due to the lack of the requisite subjective intent.

There are various defense strategies available. Given the elements of this crime, the following questions may be relevant:

• How many people were involved in the incident?
• Was there a threat to life or health (how intense was the aggression)?
  
• What was the relationship between the participants?
  
• How did the actions of the individuals evolve? Were all participants active? Were all of them attackers?
  
• Who and how initiated the conflict?
• Are there any circumstances excluding unlawfulness present (e.g., self-defense)?
• Was the perpetrator sane at the time of the act? Were they under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or mental illness?
• Was the perpetrator's intent directed towards the decisive facts?

In criminal offences against life and health, it is particularly important to thoroughly reconstruct the entire course of the relevant actions and their context. An expert opinion can play a very significant role, for example, by clarifying the manner, direction, instrument, or intensity of the attack and what kind of outcome it could objectively have caused. This also impacts the assessment of the perpetrator's (non-)existence of intent.

Similarly, the expert opinion can address the consequences of the perpetrator's actions or what the perpetrator could realistically have anticipated under the specific circumstances.