THE PALESTINE
978
Mistake of fact.
GAZETTE
28th September, 1936
12. —(1) A person who does or omits to do an act under an
honest and reasonable, but mistaken, belief i n the existence of
any state of things is not criminally responsible for the act or
omission to any greater extent than if the real state of things
had been such as he believed to exist.
(2) The operation of this rule may be excluded by the express
or implied provisions of the law relating to the subject.
Presumption of
sanity.
13. E v e r y person is presumed to be of sound m i n d , and to
have been of sound mind at any time which comes i n question, until
the contrary is proved.
Insanity.
14. A person is not criminally responsible for an act or
omission if at the time of doing the act or making the omission
he is through any disease affecting his mind incapable of understanding what he is doing, or of knowing that he ought not to do
the act or make the omission. B u t a person may be criminally
responsible for an act or omission, although his m i n d is affected
by disease, i f such disease does not i n fact produce upon his m i n d
one or other of the effects above mentioned i n reference to that
act or omission.
Intoxication.
15.—(1) Save as provided i n this section, intoxication shall
not constitute a defence to any criminal charge.
(2) Intoxication shall be a defence to any criminal charge if
by reason thereof the person charged at the time of the act or
omission complained of did not know that such act or omission
was wrong or did not know what he was doing and :—
( a ) the state of intoxication was caused without his consent
by the malicious or negligent act of another person ; or
( b ) the person charged was by reason of intoxication insane,
temporarily or otherwise, at the time of such act or omission.
(3) W h e r e the defence under the preceding sub-section is
established, then i n a case falling under paragraph (a) thereof
the accused person shall be discharged, and i n a case falling under
paragraph (b) the provisions of section 14 of this Code shall
apply.
(4) Intoxication shall be taken into account for the purpose
of determining whether the person charged had formed any i n tention, specific or otherwise, i n the absence of w h i c h he would
not be guilty of the offence.
(5) F o r the purposes of this section "intoxication* shall be
deemed to include a state produced by narcotics or drugs.
Protection of
judicial officers.
Constraint.
16. E x c e p t as expressly provided by this Code, a judicial
officer is not criminally responsible for anything done or omitted
to be done by h i m i n the exercise of his judicial functions,
although the act done is in excess of his judicial authority or
although he is bound to do the act omitted to be done.
17. E x c e p t murder and offences against the state punishable
with death, no act is an offence which is done by a person who is
compelled to do it by threats which at the time of doing it
reasonably cause the apprehension that instant death or grievous
harm to that person w i l l otherwise be the •consequence:
Provided that the person doing the act did not, of his own
accord, place.himself i n the situation by which he became subject
to such constraint.