Complaint

A crime's victim telling a public prosecutor or a judicial police officer (司法警察員) of the crime and asking that the offender be punished; the victim may file one (Code of Criminal Procedure, Articles 230 and 241, paragraph (1)). The victim's legal representative may also file one, and if the victim has died, their spouse, lineal relatives or siblings, though not against the victim's clearly stated wishes (Article 231). For some crimes — among them defamation and insult, and negligent injury — a prosecution cannot be brought without a complaint (Penal Code, Articles 209, paragraph (2), and 232, paragraph (1)); for those, a complaint must as a rule be filed within six months of learning who the offender is, though not one a foreign state's representative or a foreign envoy files over defamation or insult (Code of Criminal Procedure, Article 235), and it may be withdrawn until a prosecution is brought, but not filed again (Article 237).