Act on Amendments to the Criminal Code (new Article 215.a: endangering life and property by an artificial intelligence system)

Summary

Amendment to Croatia's Criminal Code, adopted on 24 October 2025, that adds the AI Act's definition of an AI system (Article 87(33)) and a new offence, Article 215.a 'Endangering life and property by an artificial intelligence system'. Whoever, in the development, testing, verification, supervision, management or use of an AI system, or otherwise by means of one, causes danger to human life or body or to large-scale property faces six months to five years' imprisonment, or up to three years if negligent. Serious bodily injury or large-scale damage raises this to one to ten years (six months to five if negligent), death to three to fifteen years (one to eight if negligent).

Language

No English version of this instrument was found. The English title and the summary are the register's own, written from the sources below; for the exact wording use the Croatian text.

Safety topics

Scope

Borderline scope Amendment of the Criminal Code that is not AI-specific as a whole, but adds the AI-system definition and the offence in Article 215.a; included because it is the operative criminal provision on AI-caused danger to life and property.

Status notes

The Minister of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation, Damir Habijan, presented the bill at its first reading in the Croatian Parliament in September 2025, together with amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act and the act on the anti-corruption office (USKOK); he said the definition of an AI system was taken from the AI Act and that a separate artificial intelligence act had to be adopted by 2026. Proclaimed by the President of the Republic on 30 October 2025 and published in Narodne novine No. 136/2025 on 5 November 2025; under its Article 14 it entered into force on the eighth day after publication, 13 November 2025. Article 215.a applies only where no more serious criminal offence is committed. The same act also extends Croatian criminal law to offences of legal persons committed in Croatia, on Croatian ships and aircraft and abroad, rewrites the offence of trafficking in human beings (Article 106), adds Directive (EU) 2024/1712 to the list of transposed directives and amends the bribery offences concerning members of representative bodies (Article 339).

Sources

Open the official source https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2025_11_136_2018.html

Local copy

Verification

History

1. 2026-10-17english_version: – → {"kind": "none found"} — not recorded in version 1; no English text of the act or government translation was found2026-10-17-recheck-europe-3 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2. 2026-10-17scope_note: – → Amendment of the Criminal Code that is not AI-specific as a whole, but adds the — pipeline run 2026-10-17-recheck-europe-3 (recheck), candidate HR-012026-10-17-recheck-europe-3 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
3. 2026-10-17notes: Proclaimed by the President on 30 October 2025 and in force on the eighth day af → The Minister of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation, Damir — rewritten: the minister's presentation of the bill and his remarks (ministry news item) added; publication date and the eight-day rule kept; the act's other amendments (legal persons, trafficking, Directive 2024/1712, Article 339) added from the stored text; the statements on Croatia's AI Act implementation removed (no stored file; listed as leads)2026-10-17-recheck-europe-3 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
4. 2026-10-17summary: Amendment to Croatia's Criminal Code, adopted on 24 October 2025, that inserts a → Amendment to Croatia's Criminal Code, adopted on 24 October 2025, that adds the — rewritten from the stored text of Article 215.a: 'verification' (provjeri) and 'management' (upravljanju) added to the list of activities, 'intentionally' removed (paragraph 1 does not use the word; paragraph 2 sets the negligent form); the AI Act origin of the definition now rests on the ministry's news item stored in this run2026-10-17-recheck-europe-3 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
5. 2026-10-17issuing_body: Croatian Parliament (Hrvatski sabor); Ministry of Justice, Public Administration → Croatian Parliament (Hrvatski sabor) — the act was adopted by the Hrvatski sabor (proclamation decision, 'Donositelj: Hrvatski sabor'); the ministry named in version 1 neither adopted nor issued it and is not named in the stored files2026-10-17-recheck-europe-3 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
6. 2026-10-17original_title: Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Kaznenog zakona (NN 136/2025) → Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Kaznenog zakona — verbatim title from the gazette text; version 1 appended the gazette reference '(NN 136/2025)', which is not part of the title2026-10-17-recheck-europe-3 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)

Related records

EU AI Act European Union · Partially in force

Citation

Croatian Parliament (Hrvatski sabor). Act on Amendments to the Criminal Code (new Article 215.a: endangering life and property by an artificial intelligence system) [Narodne novine 136/2025 (5 November 2025)]. 2025-10-24. https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2025_11_136_2018.html. Status: In force; verified 2026-10-17 (level A). Local copy archive/HR-01/2026-10-12/official.html retrieved 2026-10-12 04:36:52 UTC, SHA-256 66959a42517b5b86d7563d22130beae3bf038c4f499b0411ca8def8d27f95d29. Every AI Policy Ever, version 1.18 (snapshot 2026-10-18), record HR-01.

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